The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "funerals" ...
-
Abandoned Ashes
KSHB-TV discovered 155 boxes of unclaimed ashes in the basement of an abandoned funeral chapel. How did it happen? Who did the ashes belong to?
Tags: Funeral Homes; Cremation
-
No-Show Casket
An invesitgation of Batesville Casket Company, an on-line business that has no permission to sell certain brand-name caskets who has a history of frauding customers, never delivering caskets and runnning off with customer's money.
-
National Prearranged Services, a House of Cards
"This series concerned a multimillion-dollar insurance fraud perpetrated by National Prearranged services, a large national insurance provider, against dozens of its business customers, many of whom were driven to financial hardship and even bankruptcy as a result of NPS' actions.
Tags: fraud; prearranged funeral services; funeral; mortuary; insurance;
-
Grave Matters
"Grave Matters follows a dozen families that conduct 'green' burials for their loves ones, including burials that take place in 'natural' cemeteries and at sea, as well as cremations and funerals at home."
-
Breach of Trust
When writing a will and picking someone to carry out your final wishes, while in Texas, does not ensure that the heirs picked will be properly given the money and property. State laws have made it easy for the executor of the will to take from the estates.
Tags: death certificate; decease; departed; funeral
-
Moonlighting City Workers
Fox news in Philadelphia reports as two employees of the Philadephia Board of Revision of Taxes were found to have been "working private jobs while on city time." One of the workers was a licensed funeral director, caught "attending funerals and meeting grieving families in the middle of his city work day." The other "was caught on tape working in his bar and shopping for beer and supplies" while on the city of Philadelphia's clock. Their timesheets indicated they had each claimed the time out at other jobs as time spent working for the city. In the end, the funeral director resigned, and the bar owner was fired by the city.
Tags: Employment; moonlighting; falsified timecards; undercover surveillance
-
Six Feet Underhanded
Seattle Weekly discovered that bodies were being buried in wrong plots and cremated when they should be planted. Also funeral employees were disrespectful of privacy of the bodies of they were to bury and the families.
Tags: funerals; coffins; bodies; funeral director; embalmers;
-
Stealing From the Dead
This story tells the exclusive inside story of an Indianapolis business man who purchased a funeral home in New York where funeral home workers are accused of raiding the cadavers entrusted to their care. It exposed delays by the King County Prosecutor's office in its investigation of the case. The federal government also failed. FDA records reveal years of violations cited against the tissue processor in this case, but the FDA leveled no clear sanctions until it finally launched the nation's largest human tissue recall.The oversight lapses allowed 1900 pieces of potentially unscreened tissue into hospital operating rooms across the country. The story uncovers the first Indiana patient to test postitive for a potentially life threatening disease after receiving an implant from the recalled batch.
Tags: tissue harvesting; funeral homes; cadavers; implants; FDA; transplants
-
FEMA: A Legacy of Waste
Hurricane Katrina is only the latest episode in a history of bungling and fraud associated with FEMA. The Sun-Sentinel spent nearly a year studying FEMA's work in Miami-Dade County and discovered fraud and waste in the aftermath of Hurricane Frances. They found at least $330 million of FEMA money poured into communities that suffered no damage, as well as FEMA inspectors with criminal records, FEMA funds used for twice as many funerals as official deaths, and many other instances of fraud and waste.
Tags: FEMA; federal funds; federal government; disaster aid; Hurricane Frances; Homeland Security; fraud; hurricanes; disaster relief
-
CPD Death Squad
The I-Team investigated members of the Cleveland Police Ceremonial Unit who managed to rack up thousands of ceremonial compensatory hours by "'piling on' at the funerals of retired officers." The team found that compensatory payments to the ceremonial unit, hand-picked by the chief, added up to millions of dollars at a time when the city was laying off 261 officers because of budget shortfalls.
Tags: Police; corruption; city government; budgets