Ex-Mo. funeral home owner pleads guilty, agrees to repay 3 families in false cremation case

Ex-funeral home director admits mishandling bodies

COLUMBIA, Mo. — A former central Missouri funeral home director has pleaded guilty to intentionally giving three families the wrong cremated remains.

Seventy-seven-year-old Harold Warren Sr. pleaded guilty Monday to three felony charges of unlawful merchandising practices. He faces four years in prison on each of the charges.

State prosecutors and Warren’s defense lawyer asked a Boone County judge to waive prison time in exchange for a public apology from Warren. Circuit Judge Gary Oxenhandler says he will consider the request.

State officials closed the Warren Funeral Home in 2008 after a woman’s body was found stored in an electrical room for 10 months without being embalmed or refrigerated. Investigators later found several more decaying bodies.