LODI, Calif. (KTXL) — The remains of a baby were thrown away at a funeral home in Lodi, according to the Lodi Police Department and a family that contacted FOX40.
At 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, police said officers responded to a report from the the Cherokee Memorial Funeral Home that a fetus was missing from their storage area.
When reviewing the security camera video, Lt. Sean Blandford told FOX40 that the video at the funeral home shows a person throwing away the baby’s remains. The employee discarded a box containing the fetus into a waste container two weeks before police received the report, police said.
According to police, all waste containers have been emptied and transported by a waste collection company.
According to the police, the person works for a contractor and not for the funeral home. The person was delivering a body to the funeral home that day, but it is not the contractor’s regular duty to dispose of remains.
Blandford said police will assign an investigator to the case and determine if there was any malicious intent or if anyone is at fault.
The funeral home provided a statement to FOX40 that says, “Cherokee Memorial is aware of a situation that has arisen with a grieving family we are currently serving. We are working closely with the family, law enforcement and others involved to investigate and resolve the issue quickly.”
