DA Alleges $150k Theft, Forgery of Vital Records, Improper Storage of 12 Human Bodies

BOSTON, Oct. 8, 2014—Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley today announced a sweeping, 278-count indictment charging a former funeral director from Mattapan with keeping a dozen decomposed human bodies in a storage facility, stealing almost $150,000 in funeral pre-payments, acting without a license in more than 200 funerals and cremations, and forging related records.

The Suffolk County Grand Jury late today returned indictments charging JOSEPH V. O’DONNELL (D.O.B. 9/10/58) with:

• 12 counts of improper disposal of human remains for allegedly using a Weymouth storage facility to hold decomposing human bodies entrusted to his care;
• 18 counts of fiduciary embezzlement and one count of fiduciary embezzlement by scheme for using funeral pre-payments for his own purposes instead of keeping them in a trust under the contract he signed;
• 11 counts of larceny over $250 from a person over 60, six counts of larceny over $250 from a disabled person, one count of larceny over $250, and one count of larceny over $250 by scheme for the theft of those funeral pre-payments;
• 11 counts of larceny over $250 for failing to have 11 of the Weymouth bodies buried or cremated after taking payment to do so (one body cannot be charged at this time because it has not been identified and no records have been located showing that O’Donnell accepted payment for its burial or cremation);
• Four counts each of statutory forgery and statutory uttering for falsifying signatures on two medical examiner’s certificates and two death certificates and then presenting those official state documents as genuine;
• Two counts each of common-law forgery and common-law uttering for falsifying signatures on two certificates of cremation, which are not state documents but rather records created by crematory employees;
• Four counts of returning a false death certificate; and
• 201 counts of acting as a funeral director without a license.

O’Donnell was licensed to practice as a funeral director in Massachusetts until his license lapsed in late 2008. Between the end of a licensing grace period that expired in early 2009 and the foreclosure of his Neponset Avenue funeral home in 2013, however, prosecutors allege that he accepted payments for and played a role in at least 201 funerals, burials, and cremations; forged signatures on related certificates of death and cremation; and took advance payments for an additional 31 “pre-need” contracts from older adults making end-of-life plans. The price of those contracts was as much as $7,000, totaling $149,096.22, and should have been placed in a trust for use when the client passed away. Instead, when asked by investigators where this money was, O’Donnell allegedly said, “It’s all gone.”

Suffolk prosecutors and investigators assigned to the DA’s Special Prosecutions and Special Investigations Units began their probe early this year after a notification from the Massachusetts Division of Professional Licensure. Separately, two of O’Donnell’s clients notified Boston Police that they had purchased “pre-need” contracts, only to learn that O’Donnell’s funeral home had closed and he was unable to provide them with the money he had taken.

O’Donnell was arrested on that case on April 10 and held on $10,000 cash bail at his arraignment in Dorchester Municipal Court the next day. He remains in custody on that charge.

In the course of their investigation, authorities executed search warrants at two storage facilities rented by O’Donnell. One, in Somerville, yielded 45 sets of cremated remains, many of which were decades old and are believed to be unclaimed remains previously stored at the shuttered Neponset Avenue funeral home. The other, in Weymouth, led to the discovery of 32 additional sets of cremated remains and 12 human bodies in various states of decomposition.

Investigators from Conley’s office, Boston Police, and the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner were able to identify 11 of those 12 bodies conclusively as individuals who had died between 2009, when O’Donnell’s license lapsed, and 2013, when his funeral home went into foreclosure. Disturbingly, authorities believe O’Donnell provided the families of eight of those 11 decedents with ashes belonging to someone other than their loved one.  Two sets of ashes were scattered by family members, meaning only six could be recovered.

The final, unidentified remains from Weymouth are those of an adult female. Investigators continue to seek her identity.

Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Walsh, chief of the DA’s Special Prosecutions Unit, led the grand jury investigation. Brian Bukuras, a civilian investigator assigned to the SPU, lent critical assistance on the ground, as did Lt. Det. Bernard Greene, commander of DA’s Special Investigations Unit. O’Donnell is represented by attorney Paul Tomasetti. His arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court has not yet been scheduled.

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All defendants are presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.