A Maryland woman said she was horrified to learn that the crematorium she chose after her father died of cancer had been cited for conditions, including improperly storing bodies and the commingling of cremated remains.
Now, CJ Greenidge wonders whether the remains that were provided to her by Heaven Bound LLC, which operates in Charles County, are in fact those of her father.
Greenidge told WTOP that just before her father’s death, she had been investigating options for cremation, something her father had requested. She found Heaven Bound online.
“Everything was five stars. I didn’t see anything that said anything bad about them at all,” she said.
Greenidge said her father was a no-nonsense, practical man who wasn’t “lovey-dovey,” but showed his love for family by cooking for family members.
“He was an old, Trinidadian man, very stoic,” Greenidge said.
While it was clear that the cancer that would eventually take her father’s life was progressing, his sudden and dramatic decline meant she would have to make the arrangements for his funeral and cremation sooner than expected.
Once she surrendered her father’s body to Heaven Bound and paid for the cremation service, Greenidge said she was told she would receive his cremated remains in two weeks.
Greenidge said she didn’t hear back at the two-week mark, but because it was the holidays, she didn’t worry too much. But, after the New Year, she said she had trouble reaching the business.
When she did reach someone, she was told she should have her father’s remains by Jan. 16. That date came and went, and she still hadn’t heard back from the facility.
Instead, Greenidge said she got a call from a representative with Heaven Bound telling her to reach out to the State Anatomy Board, and that her father’s body had been sent there.
“At that point, I’m like, ‘What do you mean? Because yesterday I was supposed to receive his remains,'” she said. “Now, I have no idea what’s happening.”
Greenidge went to the Pratt Street offices, where Heaven Bound was listed in Baltimore, only to be told by a receptionist in the lobby that the offices had been vacated months ago.
“Now I feel like I’m in the ‘Twilight Zone,'” she said.
She drove to the crematory facilities in White Plains, “And it is locked, with the lights off. No one’s there.”
What Greenidge didn’t know was that Heaven Bound had its permit to carry out cremations suspended on Jan. 17.
It was then she learned that the business had been cited as a result of a March 2024 inspection that found a laundry list of grisly conditions.
According to the complaint before the Maryland Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors, the inspection found, “human bodies in cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other with no support between the boxes.”
“Human bodies in ripped body bags with arms and legs hanging out of the body bags,” the report also stated.
The same report detailed that human remains were not being stored at a temperature below 40 degrees and there were “bodily fluids on the floor.”
“My stomach completely started to turn, like, it was my worst nightmare,” Greenidge said.
She finally got her father’s cremated remains weeks later on Jan. 27.
At first, “I felt a sense of relief and happiness,” Greenidge said, feeling that her father was finally back with her.
But that feeling turned sour as she wondered whether she could trust that the remains she had been given were, in fact, those of her father.
“All I could think is: What happened once they took my dad’s body?” she said.
There had been more than one delay, and, “I don’t know what could have been going on” in between the time she had surrendered his body in December and when she was given the cremated remains.
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The crematory has been cited by the state board in the past. In 2017, a complainant reported that he had “found cremains in two biohazard bags that were each placed in a trash receptacle.”
WTOP reached out to Heaven Bound for comment. When the number on the business’ website was called, a message said it was out of service.
Last week, Maryland Gov. Wes Moore called for a review of the Maryland Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors, which oversees the state’s funeral and crematory industries.
Since then, three of the board members resigned.
WTOP has reached out to the board, which is independent of the Maryland Department of Health.
In an email to WTOP, MDH spokesperson Chase Cook wrote, “The reports regarding Heaven Bound Crematory are deeply unsettling. The Maryland Department of Health condemns in the strongest terms any mistreatment of human remains — on the basis of policy, respect for Maryland families, and basic decency.”
Cook explained that while MDH doesn’t have oversight of daily operations for the Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors, the department “issued an administrative subpoena, in consultation with the Office of the Attorney General, to support the State Anatomy Board’s efforts to notify the affected families.”
There is now an FAQ page on the website of the Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors.
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