CARLINVILLE, Ill. — A former Macoupin County director accused of giving the wrong cremated remains to hundreds of families is now the focus of a lawsuit seeking restitution for alleged negligence.
According to the lawsuit, Heinz Funeral Home in Carlinville gave out the wrong cremains to roughly 800 families between 2017 until 2023.
When Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon started investigating the possibility that Heinz Funeral Home in Carlinville was giving out the wrong cremains, he admits he didn’t know what he was getting himself into.
“In my 20 years of doing this I’ve never seen anything like this,” Allmon said in an October 2023 interview. “This has been going on for at least a couple of years.”
According to an affidavit signed by Allmon, he has since confirmed that Heinz gave out the wrong cremains to 75 families.
“I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have spread ashes, buried ashes,” Allmon said. “We’ve had a few good endings, but more bad than good.”
That’s why attorney Joe Craven has filed suit against the former Heinz Funeral home director.
“We filed several different counts in our lawsuit,” attorney Joe Craven said. “They all revolve around the general allegations of negligent mishandling and misrepresenting to the various family members that the cremains we’re delivering to you are in fact the cremains of your loved one.”
The lawsuit seeks up to $50,000 in damages for each impacted family by the mismanagement at Heinz.
“Our goal here is in the civil system not necessarily to punish any criminal action,” Craven said. “We can only try to make the aggrieved parties hole.”
To this point, it’s believed as many as 800 families across Illinois, Missouri, Iowa, California and Oregon could be impacted.
Craven believes the number of victims could continue to grow.
“Our biggest goal here is to try as best we can to help these family members achieve the closure they thought they had years ago,” Craven said. “The fact that they’ve had to reopen the grieving process it’s devastating to have to hear as best they can moved on from the death of their loved one only to have all of this reopened again.”
The director of Heinz Funeral home has since relinquished his license in the state of Illinois.
A Sangamon County judge must now decide whether to certify the case as a class action.