Cremated remains found in East Point storage unit

By Kristi E. Swartz

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Nearly 100 boxes of cremated remains were found in an East Point storage unit, WSB-TV has reported.

The 96 boxes were left behind by Sellers Brothers Funeral home, which has gone out of business, WSB said.

Neil Gordon, a bankruptcy attorney and the trustee for the funeral home, told WSB that his staffers were at the storage facilities looking for the funeral home's financial records when they discovered the cremated remains instead.

Some of the cremated remains -- or, cremains -- date back as far as 25 years, Gordon told WSB.

Lacy Shaw, the storage facility owner, told WSB she had no idea the remains were there.

"That's really really really scary," she said.

Gordon turned over 92 of the boxes to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office, WSB said. He has four boxes because he's waiting for court orders to release them, WSB said.

Nine of the boxes that are at the medical examiner's office don't have identification, WSB said. Officials told WSB they found seven families and are trying to contact the others.

"They deserve a proper burial," Gordon told WSB. "Their loved ones deserve to know that their remains were handled properly."

It is a felony for anyone to throw away or abandon a dead human body or portion of a dead body. Anyone who does so can be charged with abandonment of a dead body and can face up to one-to-three years in prison, according to a document from the Georgia Department of Human Resources Division of Aging Services.