Exclusive: Chesapeake funeral home storing human remains in garage despite attorney’s denial
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) — A Chesapeake funeral home is trying to get its property rezoned, but it may have much bigger problems.
Oman Funeral Home has a garage behind the main funeral home on Cedar Road. Video only on 10 shows where those bodies are being held before they are cremated.
Parent company Dignity Funeral Services and Oman Funeral Home want that residential land to be rezoned commercial. Their attorney went before the Planning Commission in October, telling commissioners it would be used for family gatherings, offices and vehicles, but not the storage of bodies awaiting cremation.
“They still haven’t decided, but I can guarantee there’s not gonna be any bodies back there,” attorney Kimberly Shepherd said.
But video from Saturday morning shows bodies being transferred from the garage to the main building up front. Experts who’ve seen the video confirmed that the white boxes would be typical for bodies awaiting cremation.
We went to the Health Department, who referred us to the Medical Examiner, who said this is the jurisdiction of the State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers. That’s the agency that wrote a response letter three weeks ago to a neighbor who filed a complaint.
But the body transfers continued through this past weekend. 10 On Your Side contacted the enforcement agent in Richmond, the president of Dignity Funeral Services James Altmeyer, Jr., and the company’s attorney. They have several operations including Oman and Altmeyer Funeral Homes, along with five different cremation companies: Family Choice Funerals and Cremations, Cremation Society of Virginia, Simply Cremation, Cremation & Burial Service of Tidewater and Coastal Cremation.
During the Oct. 12 meeting, one of the planning commissioners even added a stipulation to be more specific.
“The additional stipulation would be no housing care or sheltering of human remains on the additional auxiliary buildings in the back, to include the current home and the garage,” the commissioner said.
“I did ask the applicant and they’re agreeable to the additional stipulation,” Shepherd responded.
City Council has the rezoning request on its agenda for Tuesday night, with a recommendation for approval from the Planning Commission, but that was based on information from October that the garage would not be used to store human remains.
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