Funeral home owner says Whatcom medical examiner to blame for improperly stored human remains
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The owner of a Whatcom County funeral home that’s providing space for the county’s temporary morgue and is being investigated by the state and the county for claims that bodies of the deceased were stored without refrigeration in one of its facilities in May is pushing back on the notion that they are at fault.
In a statement sent Thursday evening, June 6, John Moles, fourth-generation owner and funeral director for Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center, said the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office is to blame for the improperly stored human remains.
“Reports about the mishandling of decedents under the care of the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office are grossly incomplete and unfairly tarnish the reputation of our funeral home,” Moles said in the release. “When Whatcom County was in a difficult situation seeking a temporary Medical Examiner’s Office facility last year, we provided the county use of our preparation room for autopsies, plus office space and space to place a storage cooler for decedents. We were acting as a landlord and couldn’t move decedents without a request from the Medical Examiner’s Office, which has a legal responsibility for the decedents.
“We offered to transport their decedents to our refrigerated space at Greenacres Memorial Park near Ferndale only upon the request of the Medical Examiner’s Office and when we had staff available or were already heading there. We didn’t receive a request on Friday, May 10.
“On May 10, we told the Medical Examiner’s Office that it needed to make arrangements for the decedents under its care. They told us that funeral homes were coming to pick up the decedents later that day. When we returned to work Monday, May 13, we discovered that no one had picked up the decedents.
“It was the sole responsibility of the Medical Examiner’s Office to make arrangements for the proper handling of those decedents. It’s understandable why families are distraught over this situation, and we are heartbroken over this mismanagement and negligence by the Medical Examiner’s Office,” the statement said.
Moles Farewell Tributes & Crematory Center has been owned by the Moles family for four generations and has provided funeral care in Whatcom County for more than 100 years, according to its website.
Dr. Allison Hunt became Whatcom County’s medical examiner in January 2022 following the retirement of Dr. Gary Goldfogel, who previously held the position for more than 30 years. Deborah Hollis is Hunt’s operations manager and chief investigator.
The Herald has reached out to the Whatcom County Executive’s Office, which is handling media inquiries on behalf of the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Temporary lease
Whatcom County entered into a lease agreement with Lengesot LLC — also known as Moles — on Aug. 1, 2023 to provide temporary space at its Bayview Chapel location in Bellingham for the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office to conduct autopsies, store bodies and perform other duties required by the examiner’s office while the county’s morgue and medical examiner’s offices on State Street in downtown Bellingham are being renovated.
The lease was originally slated to end in March but was extended by the Whatcom County Council at its May 21 evening meeting due to construction delays with the State Street project. The lease will now last through the end of the year, according to county documents.
As part of the lease agreement, Moles is expected to provide space in its garage at its Bayview Chapel location for a cooler that could store up to three bodies. If additional storage space is needed, Moles is expected to transport the bodies to its Greenacres Memorial location east of Ferndale.
The lease agreement states that Whatcom County will pay Moles $250 per autopsy performed by the county medical examiner’s office at Moles’ Bayview Chapel location. The county will also pay $50 for Moles to transport bodies to its Greenacres location for purposes of “overflow cases,” according to the lease agreement.
“To accommodate overflow, transportation will be provided by the Landlord when mutually determined necessary through coordination with the Medical Examiner’s Operations Manager. Transportation to the Green Acres facility will occur when capacity at the leased facility is limited,” the lease agreement states.
The county has paid Moles $36,803 for autopsies and transports from Aug. 1, 2023 through February 2024, according to Jed Holmes, a spokesperson for the Whatcom County Executive’s Office.
Holmes said the step-by-step procedure in place for how a body is handled from the time the medical examiner’s office takes custody of it until the time it is then released to the family and/or funeral home for burial or cremation purposes is as follows:
▪ Once the medical examiner has taken custody of a body, itis transferred to Moles’ Bayview Chapel location on Lakeway Drive.
▪ The body is then placed in a three-person cooler, which is owned by the county, while an autopsy is scheduled.
▪ The autopsy is then performed by county medical examiner staff at Moles’ Lakeway facility, the site of the temporary morgue.
▪ Following completion of the autopsy, the body is then transferred to Moles’ Greenacres location “where it is placed in cold storage until it is retrieved by the selected funeral home, crematory, etc;,” Holmes said.
The county purchased the three-person cooler in late 2022 for approximately $7,500. It was delivered in March 2023 and was put into use at the State Street morgue immediately after delivery, according to Holmes.
The three-person cooler is now currently located at Moles’ Bayview Chapel location and is being used to store bodies prior to autopsy, Holmes said. Operating costs for coolers are not significant, except for electrical costs, which are similar to a typical commercial-sized cooler, Holmes said.
The Herald has asked the county multiple questions related to its lease with Moles; whether the protocols outlined in the lease have been followed; the number of autopsies and transports that have taken place; who had jurisdiction over the bodies that are alleged to have been unrefrigerated in May; whether discussions regarding the county terminating its lease with Moles have occurred and more.
John Moles declined to comment at this time when asked Thursday evening whether he was considering terminating the lease with Whatcom County.
State investigation
The Washington State Department of Licensing and Whatcom County started inquiries into Moles and the Whatcom County Medical Examiner’s Office after becoming aware of allegations that multiple bodies under the care of the medical examiner’s office went unrefrigerated in mid-May while at the county’s temporary morgue, resulting in severe decomposition, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.
The state licensing department received a phone call from a local funeral director on May 16 alleging that a dead body they picked up from the temporary county morgue had not been refrigerated while in the care of the county medical examiner’s office.
The funeral director alleged that when they received the body on May 16, roughly six days after the person died, they found “the decedent severely decomposed and covered in flies,” according to Christine Anthony, a funeral and cemetery inspector, investigator and trust examiner with the state licensing department.
When the state licensing department became aware of the temporary lease agreement between the county, medical examiner’s office and Moles, and that a funeral home was involved, it launched an investigation May 17, The Herald previously reported.
The state licensing department’s Funeral and Cemetery Board licenses funeral directors, embalmers and cemetery operators within the state. It also investigates violations of state regulations related to the funeral and cemetery industries, according to the Washington State Governor’s website.
The state licensing department’s Funeral and Cemetery Board’s investigation is looking into possible violations by Moles of state regulations that govern the refrigeration or embalming of human remains. The licensing department does not have regulatory authority over the medical examiner’s office, but does over Moles, Anthony said.
There’s no expected timeline for when the state licensing department’s investigation will be completed, but it could take several months, Anthony told The Herald.
The state administrative codes governing the refrigeration or embalming of human remains state that “Funeral directors, embalmers, and others assisting in the preparation of human remains for final disposition shall refrigerate or embalm the remains upon receipt.”
Officials can delay the refrigeration of human remains or remove the remains from refrigeration for purposes of embalming; transporting; cremating, reducing by alkaline hydrolysis or burying or reducing by natural organic reduction. Refrigeration can also be delayed for washing, anointing, clothing, praying over, reading to, singing to, sitting with, guarding, viewing, or otherwise accompanying the deceased for not more than 24 hours according to the deceased’s directions or at the request of the person who has a right to control the disposition of the remains, according to the state administrative codes.
Two funeral homes have complained to the state licensing agency about the situation, and at least one Whatcom County Council member has as well. Anthony said she has spoken with at least two local funeral homes, the Whatcom County Health and Human Services Department, and Moles as part of the investigation. As of Thursday afternoon, she said she had not yet heard from the county’s medical examiner’s office.
“I have been assured during each conversation with the respondent funeral home and staff that all human remains are in refrigeration since the May 17th conversation with the business owner,” Anthony said in a previous statement to The Herald. “I have not yet determined responsibility for this situation.”
The Herald has reached out to the county health department for more information.
