Featured Image Credit: PA/Francesc Domènech/Getty Images
Topics: UK News
Kya Buller
Losing a loved one is the hardest thing to go through in life.
At the end of it all, our only respite is knowing they had the most dignified funeral process imaginable, and we get to grieve knowing they’ve been laid to rest, or we can scatter their ashes in a place they love.
It’s no replacement for what we’ve lost - but it helps us process it.
There is a heartbreaking and sickening story coming out of Beverley, East Yorkshire this week - as a grieving widow was informed all was not as she had been told by a funeral director.
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The widow, who has not been named, was told by police that her husband’s ashes - which she believed she had turned into jewellery - aren’t actually his.
The grieving woman was informed that her husband’s body was found in a freezer on the premises of Legacy Independent Funeral Directors - and it was discovered after a raid.
It has been reported that the heartbroken woman said she and other family members paid ‘quite a bit’ to have his ashes turned into bespoke jewellery.
It’s feared that hundreds of people in the Hull and East Riding of Yorkshire area have been affected by this huge scandal.
Families have now expressed a fear that ashes they have been given belong to total strangers.
An investigation has been launched after the police received complaints surrounding the storage of dead bodies in two branches in Hull and one in East Riding of Yorkshire.
All three sites have been cordoned off.
Humberside Police have confirmed that 35 bodies have been recovered from Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on Hessle Road in Hull.
Assistant Chief Constable Thom McLoughlin of Humberside Police confirmed they have 'also recovered a quantity of what we suspect to be human ashes'.
He added: “We are in the process of carefully recovering all of those ashes and taking those to the mortuary.”
Police branded incident is ‘truly horrific’ - and they had received more than 1,000 calls since a hotline was set up last Friday for anyone with information or concerns relating to the funeral directors.
The police force further informed the public that they have arrested a 46-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman on suspicion of prevention of a lawful and decent burial, fraud by false representation and fraud by abuse of position.
The pair have been released on bail pending further inquiries.
The arrests and subsequent scandal has rocked numerous grieving families.
Telling her story to MailOnline, Billie-Jo Suffill explained that she tragically lost her dad Andrew, 52, and brother Dwane, 34, in the space of just five days.
She believed her dad's casket was empty, and the ashes of her brother didn’t belong to him.
She reflected on saying goodbye to her dad in Legacy’s Hull chapel in 2022: “I never actually got to see my dad’s body. I bet my dad was not even in the coffin – it was an empty coffin.
"I was kissing an empty coffin. When I think about it now it is disgusting.”
Another woman, Louisa Millington, came forward to discuss the loss of her partner Carl.
His cremation was organised by Legacy.
She said the situation has left her feeling ‘broken’. She told Sky News that the situation is like 'being in sinking mud'.
She continued: “I don’t feel like I can put him to rest, I don’t feel like Carl can be at rest cause things just keep being coming back and back.”
Police have since confirmed there are 120 staff involved in the ongoing investigation.
Police officer Thom McLoughlin surmised: “My heart goes out to you all and I can only imagine how distressing this is.”
He also urged people not to speculate, and to consider those most affected by the events.
The Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management (ICCM), which provides training for those working within the bereavement services, called for funeral directors to be regulated after the probe was announced.
Tyla has contacted Legacy Funeral Homes for a comment.