Howard, Pa. — Police plan to charge a Howard funeral home director following a lawsuit alleging that a body was found in an advanced stage of decomposition in the facility.
Garrett A. Singer, of Tyrone, has owned Singer-Kader-Neff Funeral Home and Cremation Services since July 2023.
The lawsuit’s plaintiff, Sherry Cramer of Pennsylvania Furnace contracted the funeral home in November to cremate the remains of her 92-year-old mother, Joan Donley, shortly after her passing. The complaint, dated March 12, was penned by Cramer’s attorney, Louis T. Glantz.
Singer’s funeral home retrieved Donley’s body immediately after Cramer contacted them. The funeral home did not ask Cramer to pay them or sign any paperwork at this time, according to the complaint. She was to be charged $3,125 for a cremation, which allegedly never occurred.
Over the following six weeks, Cramer repeatedly contacted the funeral home to ask them about her mother’s cremation and her death certificate, but allegedly “received no clear response and never received the remains.” The funeral home once told her the coroner had her mother’s remains, and at another time, told her they had the ashes in their facility, Glantz wrote.
The funeral home also allegedly told Cramer there was “an issue with the death certificate,” but didn’t say there were any issues with the remains.
On Dec. 19, Cramer was informed that State Police and the Centre County coroner’s office had gone to Singer’s funeral home after receiving multiple complaints about missing death certificates.
Cramer then learned that her mother’s remains had not been cremated. Instead, her body had allegedly been left, unrefrigerated, in the funeral home for six weeks. The remains were found on a table, unembalmed, and in an “advanced stage of decomposition,” according to the complaint.
However, before Cramer could know what became of her mother’s remains, she was first told the body was so decomposed that it could not be immediately identified, the complaint stated. It was only after officials allegedly compared the remains’ dental records and a hip replacement ID number that they were able to confirm they belonged to Cramer’s mother.
Investigators “indicated” they discovered more bodies in the funeral home that had not been handled properly, the complaint stated.
Cramer is suing Singer and his business for negligent infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, interference with a corpse, and breach of contract. She is seeking awards of compensatory damages, punitive damages, attorneys’ fees, and any other relief a court would deem just.
Criminal charges against Singer should be officially filed sometime this week, according to Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna.
