Vegas funeral home which smelled of ‘death’ shut down after failing to cremate bodies

Owner ofMcDermott’s Funeral Home and Creation Services says delays were because of slow county bureaucracy, not neglect

A Las Vegas funeral home has shut down after authorities accused it of failing to cremate bodies promptly, sometimes leaving remains for months in unsanitary conditions that one neighbor said caused the business to smell like “death.”

The Nevada State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the license of McDermott’s Funeral Home and Creation Services last week, finding that the business had not cremated or properly disposed of eight bodies in a “reasonable period of time.”

One body was kept at the facility for over 10 months before being cremated, according to officials.

“The smell was straight up death,” Daran Denny, who owns a tattoo shop nearby, told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “I was a medic for 10 years, and I know what death smells like.”

McDermott’s owner, Chris Grant, said delays in processing were a result of waiting for approval from Clark County Social Services to pay for the treatment of bodies that went unclaimed or abandoned. The Independent has contacted the agency for comment.

Inspectors described scenes of bodies going months without cremation and leaking fluids onto floor in documents pulling license of Las Vegas funeral home, which owner contests (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

“Human nature is: ‘Funeral Home got closed. I bet they were doing some scummy stuff,’” he told the paper. “Nobody thinks that me and my staff lost everything. I just lost a 25-year career. I just lost a business that I’ve been building for 8½ years. I just lost the ability to even provide for my family.”

During a February 2024 site visit, an inspector found eight bodies that hadn’t been swiftly processed — Pamala Middlebrooks, Joseph Vocatura, Debi Vince, Catherine Lane-Novak, Lonna Lonning, Teresa John, Lawrence Ponteri and Edward Elliot — all of which had sat in refrigeration units for two months or more.

Investigators then found that in all eight cases, the funeral home hadn’t filed death records within the lawful 72 hours of death or receiving the bodies, either.

Las Vegas funeral home had complaints dating back to 2021 with state officials (Getty Images/iStockphoto)

One inspector that year described seeing “three coolers containing numerous bodies that were leaking blood and bodily fluids.”

A visit also revealed “fluids of a body… had dripped onto a body on a lower shelf and onto the floor,” according to documents obtained by KLAS.

A McDermott’s general manager told the outlet the inspections were “baseless,” and the funeral board denied the business, which had complaints dating back to 2021 with regulators, the opportunity for “corrective action.”