Mortuary owner left bodies to rot

The landlord of a building that housed a Texas mortuary discovered eight rotting bodies during an eviction process.

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Fort Worth, Texas - The owner of a Fort Worth mortuary where corpses were left to rot was found guilty by a jury on Wednesday of taking money from clients for funerals and not properly attending to the bodies.

It took the jury less than an hour to convict Dondre Johnson, 41, of theft. The same jury that convicted him will impose sentence, with the crime bringing up to two years in jail for each count.

He operated the Johnson Family Mortuary with his wife, Rachel Hardy-Johnson, 36.

Fort Worth police, who arrested the pair, found eight decomposing bodies in the mortuary in July 2014. The bodies were to have been cremated but instead were left for days and weeks in rooms without air conditioning in the hot Texas summer.

Building landlord Jim Labenz discovered the bodies during an eviction process and told the court the stench in the mortuary was so bad that he had to put a wet rag to his face just to enter.

After his arrest Johnson denied that the bodies were mishandled and said the situation was a misunderstanding related to the eviction.

Hardy-Johnson faces the same charges and will be tried separately. She pleaded guilty to food stamp benefit fraud this year and is serving a 21-month sentence in federal prison.

Reuters