WBEZ Chicago28%
57 decomposing bodies discovered at Far South Side funeral home 22%
By Violet Miller20%
8/7/2026, 4:27:06 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 18 faulty reasoning types, including Availability Heuristic, Anecdotal, and Appeal to Authority, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 27.6% saturation with 218 hits. Analysis detected 1,027 faulty-reasoning hits from 789 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 29% and a BS Rank of 22% (22,935 of 29,350 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 78.10% of the article peer group.
Dozens of decomposing bodies were found Thursday at a Far South Side funeral home, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.
A funeral was in progress when police, acting on a tip, showed up at South Chicago Chapel, 2939 E. 95th St., police said.
Police had been told bodies at the South Deering funeral home were not being stored at or below 40 degrees, as required by state regulations, according to a police report obtained by the Sun-Times.
Officers were met by funeral director Clark Morgan, who accompanied them on a walk-through of the building, according to the police report.
During the walk-through, they found 57 bodies in various areas of the funeral home.
The bodies were not refrigerated, and were in various states of decomposition, according to the report.
Hearses sit parked outside the South Chicago Chapel after decomposing bodies were found in the South Deering funeral home.
Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere/Sun-Times
At some point, officers left the building, and when they tried to go back inside, Morgan told officers that on the advice of his attorney, he wasn't letting them back in without a warrant.
After officers told Morgan they did not need a warrant to inspect the building during operating hours, he padlocked the door and left, according to the report.
Officers then called the Chicago Fire Department to help gain entry to the building.
The business’ license was revoked Wednesday, according to the police report.
It was initially unclear why police didn't visit the funeral home until the next day.
The area around the home was blocked off by police Thursday night as some neighbors milled about.
At least one person came to the scene because she wanted to ask police officers whether her mother’s remains had been found.
The funeral was July 18, and the woman said the funeral home had dodged her calls Thursday.
She had been told she would have access to her mom’s cremated remains less than two weeks after the funeral.
It was now nearing three.
Chicago police investigate South Chicago Chapel after investigators found dozens of decomposing bodies in the basement of the funeral home on Thursday.
She said it smelled when she had been there previously, but she had chalked it up to the odor of embalming fluid.
“I was at peace, it had been a month,” she said.
“Now,” she said, her voice trailing off, “I just hope she’s not in there, but something is telling me she is.”
The foul smell that hung in the air Thursday night started during the winter, several neighbors told the Sun-Times.
One pair of neighbors said they were surprised by the late hours people worked at the funeral home.
One neighbor, who worked a night shift, said he’d often see vehicles in the lot past midnight, and an upstairs light on in the funeral home.
The neighbors said they put up traps for the thousands of flies that emanated from the building.
They, along with other neighbors, reported it to law enforcement six months ago, they said.
“We're grateful,” one neighbor said of the investigation.
“I thought it was weird.
… [But] we had an idea of what was going on.”
In a statement, the Cook County Medical Examiner's Office said its staff are "assessing the conditions of the remains, searching for documentation regarding identification of the decedents as well as death certificates.
This process could take several days to ensure proper disposition."
The office "will work with authorities to identify these decedents as quickly as possible and notify their families."
Another neighbor said whenever people would enter or exit the building for a funeral, “you could smell the rot.”
“We thought at first it was coming from a factory nearby, but it was like a rotting smell,” another neighbor said.
“It smelled like an animal that was dead.
… It wasn’t once or twice, it was every weekend.
It was a fight to go outside and get in the car.”
“We just hope the families find their loved ones,” she added.
Police investigate in the 2900 block of East 95th Street on the South Side on Thursday night.
| Nima Taradji/For the Sun-Times
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended the license of the registered funeral director Johanna Morgan.
Her husband previously held a funeral director and embalmer intern license, which was revoked in 2024, according to the department.
That department alerted authorities after investigating.
A message left on the voicemail inbox of the funeral home Thursday was not returned.
A one-star Google review of the chapel posted two weeks ago complained: "HORRIBLE!!
It smells and they are very unprofessional."
Contributing: Rosemary Sobol, Lauren FitzPatrick, Tom Schuba
Speakers
3speakers15%attributed speech671writer words
100%flagged-word coverage
24 attributed words20% of attributed speech82% writer coverage
Attribution is sentence-level. Pattern percentages are calculated only from words assigned to that voice.
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Loading…
Analysis
Hover over highlighted words in the article to view the associated bias or fallacy analysis.