COFFEE COUNTY, Ga. — After deputies found 18 decomposing bodies at a Georgia funeral home, many families who used their services are left wondering if it was one of their loved ones.
“The first reaction was, I hope it wasn’t our daughter. But then you realize, if it’s not our daughter, it’s someone else’s,” Jeff and Tiffany Evans told WALB-TV in Albany.
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The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Chris Johnson, who runs the Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services in Douglas, at his home on Sunday.
On Saturday, Coffee County deputies were serving an eviction notice at the funeral home when they found 18 bodies in “various stages of decomposition.” The GBI charged Johnson with 17 counts of abuse of a dead body.
Saturday’s discovery comes as some families who used the funeral home say they haven’t received death certificates they paid for. One woman told WALB-TV that she has called dozens of times, but never got an answer.
“And I just wonder with all these bodies, is that even my mama’s body in this urn?” Douglas resident Sherri Thomas told the news station.
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Douglas Now newspaper reports that some of the bodies had been there for months. The Coffee County Coroner’s Office is working to identify the bodies and notify families.
The funeral home had already been under investigation before Johnson’s arrest this weekend, according to Douglas Now. The newspaper also reported that Johnson had ran for Coffee County coroner in May but lost.
The GBI says additional charges against Johnson are likely.
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