The Detroit funeral home where 11 fetuses were discovered last week refused to bury a baby in 2001, four years after its death, according to information state officials released Thursday.
The family still owed money at the time, and the baby's body remained unclaimed, the state said in an email summarizing violations at the Cantrell Funeral Home.
Following up on an unspecified complaint, inspectors went to the funeral home on Detroit's east side in 2000, discovering the baby and 10 other bodies near a preparation room.
A year later, inspectors returned and found 10 of the bodies had been buried, but the infant's was still there.
"Funeral home would not bury the baby," an official said in an email. "Advisory letter issued regarding poor condition of preparation room."
The email from spokesman Jason Moon of the state Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs was a summary of actions state officials have taken over time against the funeral home. It did not provide additional information on whether the issue with the infant's body was resolved or whether violations were issued. The department, which regulates funeral homes and directors, has not released detailed records of its older inspections of Cantrell.
Complaints against the home date to at least the 1990s, according to the information released Thursday. They range from complaints of unlicensed people embalming bodies, failure to embalm bodies in the proper time frame, incompetence and gross negligence. Several violations resulted in fines.
The former funeral home has been under scrutiny since last Friday with the discovery of 11 fetuses stashed above a ceiling.
State officials had received an anonymous letter in the mail, typed on a computer and providing "explicit instructions" how to find the corpses, officials said.
They were discovered in a cardboard box and an infant-sized casket hidden by insulation.
Bodies of 11 infants were found inside of the false ceiling by the attic ladder at the former Cantrell Funeral Home on Mack Avenue in Detroit, Saturday, October 13, 2018. (Photo: Junfu Han, Detroit Free Press)
“As to who submitted it, I don’t know ... we’ve not identified the author,” Julia Dale, an official with licensing and regulation, told reporters in a conference call.
The home made headlines in April after inspectors found unsanitary conditions and decomposing bodies covered in mold. The state shut down the operation.
They removed 269 containers of cremated remains found in the basement and 23 bodies from the home, which has operated on Mack Avenue for decades. Four have since been retrieved by families.
“Of the cremated remains, 52 of them were unidentifiable,” the state agency said.
Preferred Removal Service in Flint has the remaining cremains and they are available to next of kin, officials said.
In August, an anonymous caller reported that corpses were hidden throughout the shuttered home. Four inspectors and Michigan State Police arrived at the powerless building with flashlights and searched the space, which is more than 3,000 square feet, Dale said. The basement was littered with trash and other items.
Remains of a stillborn corpse — since returned to the mother — were located at that time with one set of cremated remains.
As to why the 11 other fetuses weren't discovered then, “we did go through every portion of that building.” Dale said. “Our belief was that the caller had perhaps embellished to ensure that we responded timely.”
When the state shut down the home, Raymond Cantrell II owned it. Records show that over the years he has been fined a total of $7,000, his mortuary science license was suspended and he was ordered to pay $41,456 in restitution. In addition, the home was fined twice for a total of $11,500, the state summary shows.
Cantrell's father, Raymond Cantrell Sr., started the business decades ago and died in 2016. Other family members were involved in running the operation over the years.
Dale said officials don't know who hid the fetuses.
As police investigated how the fetuses got to where they were hidden, more cremated remains from four more bodies were discovered this week in the building. Dale said Thursday there may still be more.
The building, under new ownership for months, is no longer operating as a funeral home and is under renovation.
The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office is seeking paperwork from the funeral home or medical records to identify the fetuses. The identification process could take weeks or months.
A meeting is planned Friday between Detroit Police, Michigan State Police, the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office and Attorney General’s Office, Detroit Police Chief James Craig said. They plan to discuss next steps, he said.
Contact Elisha Anderson: eanderson@freepress.com or 313-222-5144. Staff writer Kat Stafford contributed to this report.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.
