Director of unlicensed funeral home is charged after decomposing bodies found

Director of unlicensed funeral home is charged after decomposing bodies found
Provided/ Philadelphia Police Department

A funeral home director was accused Tuesday of abusing three corpses after authorities found unrefrigerated, decomposed bodies and body parts in an unlicensed funeral home.

Police were called to the 5300 block of Vine Street Monday afternoon after investigators from the Pennsylvania Department of State — which regulates funeral homes—found the bodies.

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Regulators went to the home after they got a tip that the Hawkins Funeral Home was unlicensed and receiving bodies.

Police said that at first, funeral director Blair Hawkins tried to keep regulators out of the preparation room. Regulators eventually made their way inside, where they found two decomposed bodies and one body that was embalmed. They were in an “unventilated room,” police said. Also found: an unmarked bag of human organs.

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Hawkins, 52, faces three counts of abuse of corpse.

It was not immediately clear from court records if Hawkins had a lawyer.