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Former funeral home CEO Cederick McMillian arrested on abuse of corpse charges

Posted at 9:36 AM, Jun 29, 2019
and last updated 2019-06-29 11:36:13-04

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    Mobile, AL (WALA) — Former funeral home chief executive officer Cederick McMillian has been arrested on abuse of corpse charges by the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.

McMillian is charged in three counts, according to the MCSO. Mobile County Metro Jail records show he was booked into the facility at 1:06 p.m. Friday.

MCSO deputies said McMillian also has a probation hold.

This follows the excavation and examination of three graves Wednesday at the Heritage Memorial Gardens cemetery in Prichard.

The Sheriff’s Office said it looked inside the graves at the request of family members and found them flooded with water. There have been questions surrounding the legality of the cemetery and also allegations made about some of the graves there.

On Wednesday, deputies arrested funeral director Joseph Bonner and charged him with two counts of abuse of a corpse.

Bonner, who proclaimed his innocence, was released on bond the following day.

Court documents allege that Bonner knowingly treated two corpses “in a way that outraged ordinary family sensibilities” by performing improper burials.

The court documents state that, in two cases, Bonner signed certificates stating he had “embalmed, cremated, or prepared a human body for disposition when, in fact, the services were not performed as indicated.”

The documents regarding Bonner’s arrest allege that the bodies of a man and a woman were not embalmed properly.

Bonner’s next court appearance is Tuesday at 8:30 am.

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