Funeral director charged with corpse abuse
A funeral director who allegedly stashed three decomposing bodies in a North Philadelphia garage this summer has been charged with abuse of corpse, Philadelphia police said Friday.
A funeral director who allegedly stashed three decomposing bodies in a North Philadelphia garage this summer has been charged with abuse of corpse, Philadelphia police said Friday.
Janet Powell Dailey, 72, was also charged with theft and related offenses. The owner of Powell Funeral Home, Powell Dailey came under scrutiny in August when neighbors on the 2600 block of West Hagert Street smelled something foul and traced the odor to a decrepit garage on the block.
Inside, they found three severely decomposed bodies - allegedly left there by Powell, whose funeral home is around the corner.
Police said the families of the deceased found in the garage had paid Powell Dailey for "services that were not rendered."
In the days after the bodies' discovery, relatives of the dead said they were horrified by the alleged conduct of a woman they had trusted - a longtime funeral home director and a familiar face in the North Philadelphia neighborhood where she worked.
But Powell Dailey's business had been troubled for years. She had been cited by the state for operating her funeral home with an expired license, and the business had been sued several times, including once by the city for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes. She has repeatedly declined to comment on her business or the bodies in her garage.
Powell Dailey was arraigned Friday and was held with bail set at $100,000 bail.
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