Company Dumped Cremains In Desert

PHOENIX -- For nearly three decades, Caroline Piepenbrink went to the Sunland Memorial Park mausoleum in Sun City, Ariz., to mourn her father, reported KPHO-TV.

"I just felt that this was where his earthly remains were. This was my connection to him," Piepenbrink said.

That all changed in 2002 when Piepenbrink's mother died and the family wanted her cremated remains placed in the companion niche alongside Piepenbrink's father.

"The funeral home noticed this little notation on my father's file that said he was scattered in the desert," Piepenbrink said. "They called over to the cemetery, had them open the niche and discovered nothing was there."

Legal documents show that the ashes of Piepenbrink's father, Marlin Cumming, were never placed in the niche at Sunland Memorial that his wife purchased in 1976.

Instead, his cremains were stored in a garage at Lundberg Mortuary, along with dozens of others, for roughly eight years.

In the mid-1980s, a large company called Service Corporation International purchased Lundberg Mortuary.

"What we think is [they] cleaned house and took a whole series of ashes or remains into the desert and threw them away," attorney Mickey Walthall said.

KPHO-TV uncovered a document with the handwritten names of 43 people, at least half of whose ashes were dumped in the desert. Marlin Cumming was on the list.

"Whether or not these people know what occurred or whether or not they think their family members are in the niches, I have no idea. Nor does the company know that, either," Walthall said.

There was no law in the 1980s dictating how and when a mortuary could dispose of unclaimed cremains.

Randy Thomas of the Arizona Board of Funeral Directors could not comment on Piepenbrink's case because it is under investigation, but he said that if cremains have not been picked up after 30 days, a funeral establishment will send a certified letter to the family's last-known address.

Ninety days after the letter is sent, the establishment or crematory can dispose of the ashes in any lawful way they choose, Thomas said.

That includes dumping them in the desert.

Lundberg Mortuary referred KPHO-TV to its parent company, SCI Arizona Funeral Services in Texas.

Repeated calls to SCI were not returned, but the company sent a letter to the Board. In it, SCI claimed that Piepenbrink's mother did not pick up her husband's cremains, even after the company attempted to notify her.

Piepenbrink said her mother was never contacted and Lundberg Mortuary did not keep its end of the contract.

"They didn't put my dad's ashes in the niche like they said they would. I can't trust them to put mother's there," Piepenbrink said.

Because of that, Piepenbrink keeps her mother's ashes at home with her.

"It's not going to be the same. It's not going to be what my mother and dad wanted, and that makes me sad," Piepenbrink said.