Las Vegas funeral home where bodies lingered shut down by state board

A Las Vegas funeral home has been shut down after a regulatory board found that it was failing to cremate bodies for extended periods and failing to file death records in a timely manner.

The Nevada State Board of Funeral &Cemetery Services revoked the license of McDermott’s Funeral Home and Cremation Services last week after alleging that it had not cremated or properly disposed of eight bodies “within a reasonable period of time,” failed to file death records within the required number of days and, in one case, not initiated a death record.

Records show that one body was kept at the funeral home for over 10 months before being cremated.

In a phone interview Monday, owner Chris Grant said the cremation process for the eight bodies took so long because he was waiting for approvals from Clark County Social Service, which steps in when family members do not come forward, when they abandon the body or when they cannot pay for services. In such cases, the agency pays Grant for the services, rather than a relative.

“Human nature is: ‘Funeral Home got closed. I bet they were doing some scummy stuff,’” he said. “Nobody thinks that me and my staff lost everything. I just lost a 25-year career. I just lost a business that I’ve been building for 8½ years. I just lost the ability to even provide for my family.”

Grant said all the bodies previously at McDermott’s, 2121 Western Ave., are now at Davis Funeral Home.

The funeral board revoked the license at its quarterly meeting, held Wednesday and Thursday in Reno, after alleging “unprofessional conduct.” The board did not respond to a request for comment on Monday, and minutes of last week’s meeting have not been made public. But hundreds of pages of supporting material were posted online with the meeting agenda.

Funeral home inspections

The revocation followed two inspections of the funeral home. The first was conducted on Nov. 28, 2023, by Dr. Wayne Fazzino, and no violations were documented.

During a follow-up on Feb. 21, 2024, Fazzino checked the refrigeration units, where he discovered the bodies of Pamala Middlebrooks, Joseph Vocatura, Debi Vince, Catherine Lane-Novak, Lonna Lonning, Teresa John, Lawrence Ponteri and Edward Elliot — all of which had not been cremated or disposed of within a reasonable time, according to a complaint brought in April by the funeral board.

Nevada law does not state a specific amount of time that is deemed “reasonable” to keep a body before cremating or disposing of it, but the eight bodies at McDermott’s were held in refrigeration units for anywhere from two months to over 10 months after cremation was authorized, the complaint alleged.

After the second inspection, an in-depth investigation found that in all eight cases the funeral home did not file death records within the lawful amount of time. According to Nevada law, death records must be filed with the Southern Nevada Health District within 72 hours of occurrence or of the funeral home receiving the body.

Additionally, in Ponteri’s case, the home failed to initiate the death record within the required 24 hours of receiving the body. The business initiated it 85 days after it received the body, according to the complaint.

Grant took full responsibility for “dropping the ball” on Ponteri’s death certificate.

In all eight cases, Grant said the cremation process took so long because of Clark County Social Services’ involvement. If the agency is needed to take over a case, Grant must first file a referral to the agency and await approval or denial. If a denial occurs, it is typically because next of kin has been found or the next of kin makes too much money to qualify for funeral and cremation services.

“As long as you’re in contact with the family, and the family is expressing a wish to handle it, Clark County Social Services really does not want you sending a referral,” Grant said. “But again, that’s in contrast to the board, which is saying, ‘Well, if the family hasn’t come in in so many days, you’re supposed to send a referral to the county.’”

Grant said that if he cremates a body without an approved referral from Clark County Social Services, he does not get paid.

License revocation

Grant said Stephanie McGee, executive director of the funeral board, called him at 9:30 a.m. Friday to notify him that Davis Funeral Home was coming to retrieve the bodies at his facility. He said he cooperated with Davis staff, identifying the bodies and sharing his files.

Then, the Metropolitan Police Department arrived at around 5:30 p.m. Grant said police confiscated his phone and Apple Watch, and made him step outside, away from his computer. He said they returned the electronics about five hours later.

“My main concern was these families getting this stuff done in a timely manner for them,” Grant said. “I’ve sent several messages about one family that was supposed to be scheduling a ship-out of their loved one to Indiana, and they’re still calling me, which means that they still haven’t gotten a call from anybody.”

Metro and Davis did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.

Grant said he feels as though he has a target on him from the funeral board. The board is made up of seven members from the funeral industry, and two are his direct competitors.

“When you go before this board, you are guilty until you’re proven guilty,” he said.

One of his main issues is with the “vague” statutes, specifically regarding the “reasonable” amount of time to keep a body before cremating and the definition of “unprofessional conduct.”

“Unprofessional conduct can mean I didn’t return a family’s call in a reasonable amount of time, or it could mean I left a body outside of refrigeration for a week, but it’s equally unprofessional conduct,” Grant said. “If I think a reasonable amount of time is two weeks, you might think that’s ridiculous.”

McDermott’s has other complaints dating back to 2021.

A similar allegation was made against the funeral home, according to a funeral board consent decree from December, which states that the business took 46 days to cremate a body.

‘It was stinking so bad’

Lisa Martin, a Las Vegas resident and Vince’s sister, said the two had been estranged before her sister’s death. She just figured that McDermott’s had “handled it.”

“I didn’t know any of this,” Martin said on Monday. “This is tripping me out. It took them over a year to even get back to me, then I didn’t hear anything else. It’s disgusting, but what can I do about it now?”

Azell Middlebrooks, Pamala Middlebrooks’ brother, said his niece was the next of kin for his sister, but he still called the funeral home and left messages weeks after his sister’s death.

Pamala Middlebrooks, a veteran, died in May 2023. Azell Middlebrooks said he was not contacted until February 2024 about his sister’s remains.

“I was pretty shocked to find out my sister had not been cremated,” he said.

Some of the deceased did not have any next of kin listed, according to the funeral board records.

Michael Trotta’s business, a screen-printing shop that shares a wall with one of the McDermott’s buildings on Western Avenue, said he first noticed a foul odor months ago.

For a while, he thought the smell might be from some of the chemicals he uses for his business, but he said it became obvious over time that the smell was from something much worse.

“I came in a few days, and it was so bad, I couldn’t handle it,” Trotta said. “I had to leave because it was stinking so bad.”

Trotta said the smell was the worst inside his darkroom in the rear of the building, but customers at the front of the shop noticed the smell at times, as well.

JoAnn Gallant, who works at the shop, said the pungent smell was distracting. She said she confronted Grant at the funeral home earlier this year.

“I went to talk to the guy, and he said, ‘Oh, no, we keep them on ice,’” Gallant said. “The poor family members of those people. I wish we could have recorded the smell so people could understand how bad it was. We had to go home a lot.”

Daran Denny owns a tattoo shop that sits just a few steps from the funeral home. He said he also noticed a bad odor at times.

A few weeks ago, Denny asked Trotta why he was keeping his doors open during the hot Las Vegas summer months, so Trotta took him to the darkroom.

”The smell was straight up death,” Denny said. “I was a medic for 10 years, and I know what death smells like.”

Contact Emerson Drewes at edrewes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @EmersonDrewes on X. Staff writers Bryan Horwath and Katelyn Newberg contributed to this report.