The findings read like something out of a horror novel: human bodies in stacked cardboard boxes or ripped bags, limbs spilling out. Blood on a refrigeration unit. Fluids on the floor. 

In March 2024, the Maryland Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors sent an inspector to Heaven Bound Cremation Services following reports of improperly stored human remains. Over nearly a decade, officials had paid the crematory more than $900,000 to handle the bodies of thousands of Washington D.C.’s deceased whose kin couldn’t be found or couldn’t afford private disposition services. The Washington Post also reports Heaven Bound was D.C.’s sole cremation contractor.

Despite documented evidence of mistreatment and violations throughout their entire contract, Heaven Bound continued to operate for another 10 months following the Board investigation, then abruptly shuttered January 2025, leaving grieving families to locate the remains of their loved ones in a fragmented public system.   

“We have clients who thought that they had the mother’s remains and then got a phone call from the state of Maryland saying, ‘I’m sorry, but we have your loved one’s remains right here,” says Cedric Lewis, attorney at Lewis Law Firm, LLC, which represented the families affected by the crematory. “They mixed up the remains.” 

The Heaven Bound case is a microcosm of America’s strained public disposition system, which tends the unclaimed bodies belonging to foster children, homeless people, crime victims, poor residents, and more of the country’s most marginalized. State and local governments, which are responsible for overseeing these operations, frequently partner with private crematories to relieve some pressure. But, as a spate of horrifying, high-profile cases show, officials often lack the oversight and enforcement capabilities to ensure their contractors meet critical standards.

In August, Illinois’ inspection practices came under fire after agents found dozens of unrefrigerated, decomposing bodies at a Chicago funeral home. Colorado introduced new legislation in 2022 following grisly discoveries spanning crematories, including nearly 200 stacked bodies, a decaying corpse kept in the back of a hearse for almost two years, the sale of body parts, and fake ashes sent to grieving families.

When someone dies in D.C., and no one comes forward to claim their body within 15 days of the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) receiving it, the office arranges for cremation. Once a year, the OCME holds a memorial service for the unclaimed, where their cremated remains, called cremains, are buried at a local cemetery. From 2017 to early 2025, Heaven Bound prepared thousands of bodies for this ceremony.

The crematory, owned by Rosa and Brandon Williams, started having problems their first year under contract with the district, when the Maryland Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors were called by an undisclosed complainant to investigate reports of improper remains storage. During a 2019 evidentiary hearing, Rosa admitted under oath to breaches stemming from the facility’s primary cremation chamber breaking down. Instead of halting operations, however, the owners continued to accept bodies, racking up years’ worth of additional violations — combining or failing to send cremains, missing ethics courses — and penalties: probation, random inspections, board supervision. 

Heaven Bound’s shaky run came to an end on January 10, 2025, when a Board inspection found its cremation chamber was no longer functional and decomposing human bodies were accumulating, posing too severe a risk to public health to remain open.

Now, there are more than a dozen civil lawsuits against Heaven Bound, and both owners have been arrested and charged with eight violations each of Maryland General Health Article §5-514 regarding unauthorized disposal of a body.  

In July, Senate Bill 413 took effect in Maryland, consolidating crematory oversight from two regulatory bodies to one: the State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors. The new bill also adds a second inspector to close gaps identified in a recent state audit, steps up disciplinary action for violations, and strengthens enforcement mechanisms.

For example, it gives the governor more authority to remove state board members for repeated and unexplained absences or for any just and reasonable cause. It also closes a loophole that allowed facilities to operate while they were appealing a disciplinary action. 

When it comes to implementation, Maryland regulators could learn from the fits and starts of Colorado’s 2022 legislation, which allows state regulators to conduct unannounced funeral home inspections. While the initial bill stopped short of providing the additional funding needed to carry out those inspections, Colorado lawmakers closed that gap in 2024 by passing appropriations to hire a full-time enforcement team. The law also introduced more stringent requirements for funeral home owners, including stricter licensing, educational prerequisites, mandatory board exams and apprenticeships, and criminal background checks. 

For most people, the country’s public disposition system has seemed distant, almost invisible. Cases like Heaven Bound expose its fissures and fuel demands that its facilitators are held to the same standards of transparency and accountability as those who serve the living. 

“Being trusted with the remains of people’s loved ones is a heavy responsibility,” says Alan Mitch, co-counsel with Lewis. “You have to have compassion, you have to have trust, you have to have professionalism.”