State revokes North Philly funeral home license
Two months after she was arrested for stashing three rotting corpses in a dilapidated garage, a North Philadelphia funeral director has lost her state licenses to run a mortuary business.
Two months after she was arrested for stashing three rotting corpses in a dilapidated garage, a North Philadelphia funeral director has lost her state licenses to run a mortuary business.
Janet Powell Dailey must relinquish both her funeral director and funeral supervisor licenses and pay $180,000 in civil penalties for violating state laws.
The funeral home she once ran, Powell Mortuary Services, has been slapped with an additional $120,000 in civil penalties and had its establishment license revoked as well.
Powell Dailey was charged in November with abuse of corpse, theft, and related offenses for her alleged treatment of the bodies.
Her lawyer did not return a call for comment on Tuesday.
In August, neighbors on the 2600 block of West Hagert Street called police after they smelled a foul odor and discovered decomposing bodies in a garage on the block.
Police said the bodies were left there by Powell Dailey, whose funeral home was around the corner, at 2432 N. 27th St.
"Dailey and Powell Mortuary Services failed to fulfill one of the most fundamental responsibilities that a licensee has, to treat the deceased with dignity and respect," the board wrote in its final adjudication.
The board found that Powell Dailey and her funeral home failed to properly store and dispose of remains, allowed the corpses to deteriorate, treated the deceased in a disrespectful manner, and did not maintain required records.
Powell Mortuary Services also operated on an expired license for more than three years, the board said, and practiced at a location other than the one for which its license was issued.
The state has stepped up its scrutiny of funeral homes since the summer, when both Powell Dailey's case and that of another local funeral director, Blair Hawkins, who was also allegedly harboring rotting corpses, came to light.
In both cases, family members of the deceased said they had been told their loved ones had been cremated. One family that used Hawkins' services after a relative's death spent its savings on a cremation that never happened.
Reginald Andrews, whose uncle's body languished in Powell Dailey's garage for a month after his funeral, said at the time of the discovery that he was "heartbroken" to learn what had happened to his uncle.
"No one wants any of their loved ones mistreated, or something as horrible as this," he said.
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