Bodies of 11 infants found in ceiling of shuttered Detroit funeral home
DETROIT – Construction workers found the bodies of 11 infants inside a defunct Detroit funeral home Friday, police say.
The crew was working on the Cantrell Funeral Home on the city’s east side when they found the bodies just before 5:30 p.m., according to The Detroit News.
Police say the bodies had been hidden in the ceiling of the Mack Avenue business – eight inside a cardboard box and three others in individual bags inside a casket.
In late April of 2018, state inspectors ordered the funeral home to close after finding “deplorable” conditions that included moldy, unrefrigerated bodies in various states of decomposition, according to MLive.com.
Michigan State Police and the Wayne County Medical examiners responded to the former funeral home Friday.
LARA shut down Cantrell Funeral Home in April for multiple violations. These violations included improper storage of embalmed bodies, two of which were in an advanced stage of decomposition, according to a press release from LARA.
CNN attempted to contact the funeral home, but the number led to a call center at a different company.
A police investigation is ongoing.
CNN contributed to this report.