New Ken veterinarian shocked by 'callous,' 'two-faced' funeral director accused of mishandling remains

Following the sudden death of her cat, CrackerJack, earlier this year, Dr. Betsy Kennon said what she got back from the funeral home that cremated him was so lovely that she was moved to thank the man responsible in person.

“I thought he was warm, he was friendly, he was sympathetic and he empathized with my feelings,” Kennon said. “He gave me a hug when he saw how upset I was. He seemed wonderful.”

Kennon’s memory of her February encounter with Patrick Vereb is colored differently now that he is accused of dumping the bodies of cats and dogs in landfills and giving grieving owners ashes that were not their beloved pets.

Vereb, 70, of Hazelwood and owner of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorials is facing multiple felony charges and a class action lawsuit. He is charged with the theft of almost $660,000 from customers who paid for pet cremations, burials, returns of ashes and other services between 2021 and 2024.

Vereb’s attorney, Louis Emmi, could not be reached Saturday.

Kennon, of Fawn, now can’t be certain that the ashes contained in a shadowbox with CrackerJack’s name are actually his, or even if the tuft of black fur on the back came from him.

Kennon said she was with Vereb for only about five minutes at his location in Harrison, and he thanked her for stopping in because no one else had.

All through her more-than-40-year career, Kennon said people have asked how they could know for certain that the ashes they receive are their pets.

There was no way to know, she’d tell them, other than trusting they were dealing with a reputable person.

Kennon told Vereb that because of what she had received from him, she had no doubt.

“He never batted an eye. I cannot believe he looked me straight in the face and it didn’t phase him one bit,” she said. “It’s unfathomable that somebody could be that callous and that two-faced.”

Kennon, a veterinarian, adopted CrackerJack in 2021 at Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley in New Kensington, where she volunteers her services and as of this year became president of its board. He came in with his mother, which died that day, and two tabby siblings that were quickly adopted.

“Being a black cat, black cats are the last to get adopted,” she said. “He was there for three weeks by himself.”

She described CrackerJack as sweet, loving, adorable, affectionate, funny and entertaining.

“He was a wonderful, wonderful cat,” she said.

After he died, Kennon was too distraught to bury him in her own pet cemetery, where nearly all of her pets from more than three decades rest. CrackerJack went to Vereb because Animal Protectors was using his funeral home for cremations because, she presumes, his Harrison location was nearby.

Animal Protectors is now looking for another, Kennon said.

Kennon wasn’t immediately sure how many pets Animal Protectors sent to Vereb, either from owners or the shelter, itself. Fees ranged from $100 for those five pounds or less up to $300 for those between 91 and 120 pounds, with $2 per pound added over 120.

One of Vereb’s employees, Tiffany Mantzouridis, took her concerns to police. In addition to improper storage of pets’ bodies, she found no crematory records for pets under 30 pounds, and feared Vereb was giving leftover ashes from large animals to those who paid for small ones to be cremated.

Last year, Kennon euthanized Tami Haslett’s 8-year-old cat, Ralphie, which had been suffering from cancer. Haslett, a member of the Animal Protectors board who lives in the Banksville section of Pittsburgh, took Ralphie to Vereb at his facility in Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood.

Haslett felt comfortable entrusting Ralphie to Vereb after her veterinarian had sent three of her dogs to him for cremation in 2016, 2017 and 2018 and she, like Kennon, believed they had been properly handled.

“Little did I know,” Haslett said.

Haslett never saw Vereb in-person, and described him as having been short and rude on the phone. “Maybe he was having a bad day,” she said.

When she heard of the charges and accusations against Vereb, Haslett said she was in tears.

“You trusted they were going to take care of them and get them back to you, and they assured you of that,” she said. “Now, to think my animals may have been thrown in a landfill somewhere just breaks my heart.”

The shadowboxes and ashes Haslett got from Vereb are part of a memorial on her mantle to the pets she’s had since 1986.

“Part of me says, if they’re not my pet they’re somebody’s. It would seem not right to throw them out,” she said. “I still would probably treat them with respect. It’s just sad you’re pretty sure it’s not them.”

Kennon still has CrackerJack’s shadowbox, and says she’ll probably keep it. Since Vereb is accused of mishandling pet remains from 2021 to 2024, and CrackerJack died this year, the remains could be his.

“He’s the only one that knows,” she said.