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Jewish Death Practices:
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Cemetery Abuse

Eden cemetery trial set for May

...plaintiffs presented sufficient disputable facts to proceed with the trial to determine whether Service Corp. International (SCI), owners of Eden Memorial Park, moved graves without telling family members, broke concrete coffin containers and then dumped the debris and human remains, and engaged in illegal practices to squeeze graves into spaces that are too small.

SCI purchased Eden in 1985. About 40,000 people are buried at the 72-acre facility at Sepulveda Boulevard and Rinaldi Street, which has been in operation for more than 50 years.

In November 2010, Mohr sanctioned SCI for tampering with evidence, after the plaintiffs showed that SCI had cleaned the cemetery dump in late 2009, soon after the judge ordered Eden to preserve all evidence related to the case.

Attorney Calls State Report Exonerating Eden Memorial Shoddy and Inadequate

California’s Cemetery and Funeral Bureau reviewed five years worth of audits and a June 2008 investigation into similar allegations and concluded that there is not enough evidence to support the claims.

“The kinds of things that are being alleged are not easily hidden from view,” said Russ Heimerich, spokesman for the California Department of Consumer Affairs, which oversees the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau. “If thousands of bodies had been removed and the graves desecrated, there would be evidence of cracked or missing headstones, a much larger spoils pile [where excess dirt is dumped], and there might be bones in that spoils pile. Those are the kinds of things our auditors would catch.”

Class Action Lawsuit

Sanction for Suppressing Evidence

Los Angeles, CA    

Ringleader of Burr Oak grave-selling scheme sentenced to 12 years

Chicago, Illinois

by Lolly Bowean

Jul 9, 2011

A Travesty of Justice” at Unearthed Graves El Pueblo Campo Santo

Los Angeles, California

by Richard Guzmán

Apr 9, 2011

Arlington National Cemetery Finds More Mismarked Graves

Arlington, Virginia

by Dick Eastman

Sep 17, 2010

Georgia: Crematory Operator Sentenced

Scores of Bodies Strewn at Site Of Crematory

Noble, Georgia

New York Times

By David Firestone with Robert D. Mcfadden

Feb 1, 2005

Feb 17, 2002

Menorah Gardens Cemetery West Palm Beach, Florida

 

Dec 2001

Unearthed Graves, Sorrows 

Princeville, North Carolina

by Sue Anne Pressley and Hamil R. Harris

Oct 30, 1999

Extended Journey To Final Rest

Athens, Greece

by Richard Boudreaux

Sep 11 1999

"Now We Know Why the Grass Never Grew ... They Never Stopped Digging"

Santa Fe Springs, California

by Kristen Davis

May 1999