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Police: 3 bodies found in unlicensed West Phila. funeral home

A funeral home in West Philadelphia was being investigated Monday for operating without a license and improper handling of bodies and organs, police said.

A funeral home in West Philadelphia was being investigated Monday for operating without a license and improper handling of bodies and organs, police said.

Three bodies and a bag containing human organs were found Monday afternoon inside Hawkins Funeral Services at 53d and Vine Streets, said Lt. John Walker of Southwest Detectives.

One body, awaiting cremation after a recent funeral, was still in a casket and beginning to decompose, Walker said.

Two other bodies had not been embalmed or kept in refrigeration and were decomposing, Walker said.

It was the second time in a week that officials have found bodies decomposing in a funeral home facility.

In Monday's discovery, detectives questioned Blair A. Hawkins, identified on the business sign as the funeral director.

Walker said Hawkins did not have a license to run a funeral home, though he was involved in at least one recent funeral, involving the body in the casket.

Police also interviewed John C. Gaither, who formerly ran a funeral business at the location. Walker said Gaither's license was inactive.

Gaither said Monday night he had nothing to do with the bodies and had not operated out of the building for about a year.

"I am not involved in it at all," he said.

He said that Hawkins had approached him last fall about running a shared facility, but that the arrangement was never finalized.

In June, "I discovered he was operating under my business name and without asking me if he could," Gaither said.

Gaither said he removed his business sign from the front and his funeral director's license from the property.

Gaither said he was "appalled" that bodies would be treated that way and pledged to continue to cooperate with investigators.

Police executed a search warrant at the funeral home Monday night, and the Medical Examiner's Office took charge of the bodies, Walker said.

Last Tuesday, neighbors investigating a foul odor discovered three badly decomposed bodies in a garage owned by a funeral home in the city's Strawberry Mansion section. There is no word yet of any charges in that case.

215-854-5983@RobertMoran215