The remains of two babies found inside a funeral home in northwest Indiana were "mishandled," officials said.
Just before 1 p.m., investigators from the Lake County, Ind. coroner’s office were called to the Smith, Bizzell & Warner Funeral Home at 4209 Grant St. in Gary, to conduct a death investigation into the remains of two fetuses, according to a release from the coroner’s office.
Lake County Coroner Merrilee Frey said the fetuses had been at the facility before the current owners moved in on June 3, 2005. The funeral home's spokesman Sean Howard said the fetuses were stored there for nearly two decades.
One boy and another baby whose gender couldn’t be determined remained unidentified as of Wednesday night. Both babies were stillborn fetuses, officials told NBC Chicago.
The funeral company's management said the bodies were "mishandled by a now discharged employee," prompting an investigation from Gary police and the Lake County Coroner.
Investigators who gathered evidence at the funeral home Wednesday told the Chicago Tribune it was clear the babies had been stored in a box above the ceiling tiles in the morgue.
Howard said in 2012, the bodies were placed in a locked cabinet with a container dedicated to storing the remains, but at some point around September 2014, an employee removed the bodies and put them in the ceiling area of the morgue.
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"The move was quickly discovered by a manager and the remains were properly restored," Howard said.
Howard said the funeral home later contacted the coroner's office with hopes of giving the bodies a proper burial, and spent several months trying to identify family members. On Wednesday, the coroner's office was called to pick up the bodies and management told them about the former employee's actions.
"We regret the actions of this particular individual and we take full responsibility," Howard said.
Officials said the babies were never claimed by family members. The causes of death for both were still pending, the coroner’s office said.
