{"id":4440,"date":"2025-10-15T07:21:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4440\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T07:21:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T07:21:14","slug":"houston-mortuary-owners-charged-with-crimes-after-allegedly-keeping-bodies-in-inhumane-conditions-houston-public-media","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/4440\/","title":{"rendered":"Houston mortuary owners charged with crimes after allegedly keeping bodies in \u2018inhumane\u2019 conditions \u2013 Houston Public Media"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\"Texas<\/a><\/p>\n

Via Google Maps<\/p>\n

The Texas Funeral Service Commission ordered Richardson Mortuary to suspend operations in April 2025.<\/p>\n

Two owners of a Houston funeral home have been charged with crimes several months after the bodies of a dozen deceased people were allegedly found decomposing in “inhumane” conditions.<\/p>\n

According to Harris County court documents, former spouses Michael Richardson, 72, and Gayle Bell, 63, \u2014 the co-owners of Richardson Mortuary in Houston \u2014 were each charged last week with three counts of abuse of a corpse. The charges come several months after more than 100 bodies, some cremated and some awaiting embalmment, were removed from the funeral home. <\/p>\n

In April, the Texas Funeral Service Commission ordered Richardson Mortuary to suspend operations<\/a> following an inspection that allegedly found the facility “failed to meet building, health and safety codes.” The inspection was conducted after a family member of one of the deceased posted a video on social media showing the alleged conditions in which the bodies were being stored. <\/p>\n

According to the charging document, investigators spoke with two witnesses who told police they observed bodies being stored in the funeral home that was “open to the elements, very dirty, hot, not sanitary and under construction with a strong odor of decomposition.”<\/p>\n

RELATED: Houston police, state funeral commission sifting through \u2018pretty big mess\u2019 at Richardson Mortuary<\/a><\/p>\n

One of the witnesses told police she entered the property via an unlocked back door after funeral home employees repeatedly refused to let her see a family member being stored in the facility. The witness said that upon entering the building, she discovered the body of a deceased family member in a coffin “covered in bugs and in [an] advanced state of decay,” according to court documents. <\/p>\n

In total, investigators said 12 bodies in various states of decay were removed from the building and transferred to another funeral home facility with the ability for proper storage. Approximately 70 sets of cremated remains were also allegedly found “stored in different parts of the building in inhumane conditions.” <\/p>\n

According to court documents, Bell told investigators that Richardson allegedly did not allow her into the section of the building containing the bodies. Bell also told investigators that the building was under construction after being damaged during Hurricane Beryl<\/a> in July 2024.<\/p>\n

Abuse of a corpse is a state jail felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000. <\/p>\n

Richardson’s defense attorney did not immediately comment when contacted Tuesday by Houston Public Media. Bell did not have a defense attorney listed for her in online court records. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Via Google Maps The Texas Funeral Service Commission ordered Richardson Mortuary to suspend operations in April 2025. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4441,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[910,2441,294,4788,405,56,4789,58,57,66,223,4790,4791],"class_list":{"0":"post-4440","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-houston","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-court","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-criminal-charges","12":"tag-harris-county","13":"tag-houston","14":"tag-houston-funeral-homes","15":"tag-houston-headlines","16":"tag-houston-news","17":"tag-local","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-richardson-mortuary","20":"tag-texas-funeral-service-commission"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}