Munhall funeral home director accused of leaving corpse to decompose headed to Allegheny County Court
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An area funeral director is headed to trial for leaving a dead man’s body unrefrigerated for more than a week after the man’s family argued about funeral home fees.
District Judge Patrick D. Campbell sent the case of Michael Aldrich, 75, of West Mifflin, to Allegheny County Court following a preliminary hearing Wednesday. Aldrich is set to be arraigned Aug. 14.
Munhall police charged Aldrich with abuse of a corpse on Nov. 17. His first hearing in front of Campbell was delayed six times since January, court records show.
Aldrich kept the corpse of Dexter Owens, who died Aug. 31, 2022 at his Munhall home, unrefrigerated for eight days, causing the body to decompose, Munhall police said in a criminal complaint.
Attorney William H. Difenderfer, who represents Aldrich, did not return multiple calls seeking comment this week.
Owens’ family sued Aldrich and West Funeral Home on June 13 in Common Pleas court, court records show. They are seeking more than $100,000 in damages, as well as reimbursement for what they paid to the funeral home, the lawsuit said.
“I think criminal charges are merited in this case,” said attorney Paul Ellis, who represents Owens’ family in the civil suit. “I’m honestly appalled. Funeral directors have a heightened level of trust in them. They have one of the most sacred obligations imaginable … our contention is that (Aldrich) breached that trust.”
Kelvin Owens, Dexter’s brother, initially contacted West Funeral Home around the time of his brother’s 2022 death, the criminal complaint said. He agreed to pay $3,390 for them to hold and cremate the body.
Aldrich runs George Warden Funeral Home, a corporation based in Munhall that has an operations contract with West Funeral Home in the Hill District, according to court documents.
The funeral home’s price triggered an argument between Aldrich and the Owens family, according to the criminal complaint. Deborah Slayton — Dexter Owens’ sister, who lives in Germany — found another funeral home to use.
House of Paradise Cremation and Funeral Services offered the Owens family the same funeral services for $1,000, the complaint said.
When the family said they wanted to transfer the body, Aldrich initially told them it already had been cremated, the complaint said. He later demanded the Owens family pay $1,200 for storage of the body and transportation. Kelvin Owens paid in cash on Sept. 8, 2022.
Aldrich then released the body to House of Paradise’s Shamiah Coulverson, who told police it was extremely decomposed, stored in a body-bag that was leaking fluid, and smelled “extremely repulsive,” the complaint said.
Funeral home staff told Coulverson the corpse had been kept in a refrigerator, but the unit was not cold, according to the complaint. They said the refrigerator just had been plugged in that day.
State law requires a dead body to be embalmed, placed in a sealed casket, or refrigerated if final disposition does not occur within 24 hours, police said.