Comrades in Arms:
Here's a news article from the Tuesday 07 April 2009 edition of the WASHINGTON
POST newspaper that is of particular interest to those of us residing in
Washington, D.C. at the Armed Forces Retirement Home.
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FAMILY ASKS FAIRFAX PROSECUTOR TO INVESTIGATE FUNERAL HOME
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
The family of a deceased U.S. Army veteran whose body was stored for months in a
Falls Church funeral home's unrefrigerated garage is asking Fairfax County
prosecutors to investigate the case as a crime.
Richard Morgan Jr., a Harrisonburg, Va., criminal defense attorney,
hand-delivered a letter to Commonwealth's Attorney Raymond F. Morrogh's office
yesterday arguing that the actions of National Funeral Home and its parent
company, Houston-based Service Corporation International, amount to felonies.
Morgan said his father's body was "defiled" because it was left to rot on a
garage rack, a possible felony under a Virginia law regulating the treatment of
corpses.
The body of Maj. Richard Morgan was left from November to February in a light
oak coffin in the garage at SCI's central care facility, located in the same
building as National Funeral Home, according to current and former employees who
saw the coffin and the body inside. Morgan's family identified photographs of
his remains -- dressed in a dark green suit, white shirt and red tie -- that
were taken by former funeral home employee Steven Napper on Dec. 12 as he
catalogued problems he felt the company was ignoring.
Napper, an embalmer and former Maryland state trooper, reported unsanitary and
unethical conditions to the Virginia Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers
before resigning in February. His accounts were bolstered by other employees --
including one who came forward publicly yesterday -- and a client who stumbled
upon the conditions in the garage and a walk-in cooler at the funeral home. The
building serves as a central clearinghouse for bodies coming from five area SCI
funeral homes.
Napper said as many as half a dozen bodies destined for burial at Arlington
National Cemetery, including Morgan's, were left on the unrefrigerated racks
because coolers were full and his supervisors said the company did not want to
spend more money.
"This is going to keep happening unless and until people feel the oppressive
weight of government and the possibility that they could be thrown in jail,"
Morgan said yesterday in an interview after he left the letter for Morrogh.
"This should not be considered a cost of business. We need to make an example of
this."
Morrogh, who was out of town yesterday and had not yet received the letter, said
he could not comment on what he might do. State officials declined to comment.
SCI officials have said they take the allegations seriously and are
investigating, but they said they have yet to substantiate them.
The Washington Post reported Sunday that current and former SCI employees and a
customer alleged unsanitary and unethical conditions at SCI's regional central
care facility.
They said the facility stored as many as 200 bodies in unrefrigerated areas,
including the garage, and that the bodies, sometimes fully exposed, leaked
fluids on the floor.
Morgan, 41, said he felt betrayed by what happened to his father's body. He said
he was told it would be refrigerated from the time of the death in November
until his burial with full military honors Feb. 6 at Arlington. Morgan said he
and his family members -- including a sister in Montgomery County and another
sister who is deployed to Afghanistan with the Virginia National Guard -- were
distraught after learning that their father's body was instead left on a storage
rack to decompose.
"Somebody willfully and intentionally put my father's corpse on that rack," said
Morgan, whose father served 20 years in the Army before working for it as a
civilian for 26 more years. He left in 1994. "Those are the people I'd like to
see punished."
Morgan, who was quoted anonymously in Sunday's Post report, said an SCI official
contacted him over the weekend and denied the allegations, although he said he
received no explanation for Napper's photographs, which showed bodies stored in
the unrefrigerated garage. Morgan said the SCI official agreed to refund the
$14,111.65 the family paid for funeral services.
"Our investigation is ongoing, and it would be inappropriate for us to comment
upon it at this time or to discuss the substance of any conversations with
client families," J. Scott Young, president of SCI Virginia Funeral Services,
said in a statement. "In the event that any regulators or law enforcement
authorities decide to investigate or make any sort of inquiry, they would have
our full cooperation."
The family of retired Army Col. Andrew DeGraff, whose body was also left in a
coffin on the garage rack next to Morgan's, said they would support a criminal
investigation.
"My ultimate goal when I heard about this whole incident is that they lose their
license and they are no longer allowed to do this business," said Grace Wozniak,
DeGraff's granddaughter.
Another current SCI employee blew the whistle yesterday to decry what he has
seen at their central facility in Falls Church. Robert Ranghelli, 19, of
Manassas Park said the operation there is "a disgrace."
In addition to dressing bodies and making them up for viewings, Ranghelli
handles "removals," or picking up the dead to take them to National Funeral
Home. He said he has worked there since January and has seen numerous bodies
stored in the garage, including as many as a dozen veterans on the racks waiting
for burial at Arlington. He took photographs of coffins, some of which he said
contained bodies, on the racks and of blood stains on the floor.
He said supervisors have asked him to store bodies on the racks and have skipped
parts of the cleaning process in order to save money, even if families are
charged for it.
"It's a death factory," said Ranghelli, who is also a volunteer firefighter and
emergency medical technician. "I've had a lot of sleepless nights. I just don't
feel right having to do things like place people's loved ones on racks in the
garage."
Ranghelli said that he saw a state board investigator taking photographs and
going through files at the funeral home last month and that she visited again
yesterday. He said yesterday that supervisors there were scrambling to clean the
facility over the weekend, when The Post first exposed the allegations. He said
that employees bleached the cooler to remove stains and that some of the SCI
funeral homes came to retrieve bodies stored there.
Numerous clients said yesterday that they called area SCI funeral homes and were
told that the company is looking into the situation.
John Mastal, 37, said his father, retired Air Force Col. Jerome Mastal, died
June 29 and was buried Sept. 28 at Arlington. He said employees of Demaine
Funeral Home in Alexandria -- an SCI property -- told his family that the body
would be refrigerated at their central facility.
"It was comforting at the time, but now I have lots of questions," Mastal said.
"Today, they say the bad conditions did not exist. Hopefully, this didn't happen
to my father, but how am I ever going to know?"
Staff writer Tom Jackman contributed to this report
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Here is the URL for an accompanying video:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2009/04/03/VI2009040302887.html?sid=ST2009040403092
My concern is how are bodies from the Armed Forces Retirement Home being
treated?
Shouldn't someone from the Armed Forces Retirement Home be investigating the
local contractor funeral homes, especially in light of mistakes that have been
made here?
In the past few years, on at least two (02) occasions, bodies from the Armed
Forces Retirement Home have been misplaced or completely lost.
In an effort to save money, the Armed Forces Retirement Home closed down its own
mortuary service, and our current state of chaotic confusion is a direct result
of that decision.
I've only seen a couple of local funeral homes, and only from a distance, while
passing by.
But, typical of businesses and neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., which resemble
Third World war zones, the local funeral homes appeared rather cheap and
decrepit.
I have another major concern about part of an earlier version of this same breaking news
report.
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VIRGINIA FUNERAL HOME ACCUSED OF ATROCIOUS CONDITIONS
Ronald Federici saw a lukewarm cooler overflowing with exposed bodies when his
Army colonel father's body was taken to National in December.
"The stench was disgusting," Federici of Clifton, Va., told The Associated Press
Sunday. He described seeing about 1 to 2 inches of feces and urine on the floor.
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At the moment of death, the sphincter muscles relax, and the body releases all
of its waste matter.
So, were some of these people STILL ALIVE when they were placed in that cooler?
This news report should definitely have us asking some hard questions.
Thank you. 
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