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 People who think one of the bodies found at Johnson Family Mortuary might be a relative are asked to call the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office at 817-920-5700, ext. 5. 
 
 Eight bodies were removed from an east Fort Worth funeral home Tuesday afternoon after police were called to investigate why bodies were left behind in the Johnson Family Mortuary after employees vacated the building. 
 
 “A total of eight bodies — human remains, aged from infant to adult, were found in the building in varying stages of decomposition, some quite advanced,” Sgt Raymond Bush, a Fort Worth police spokesman, said in a news release Tuesday evening. 
 
 Dondre Johnson, a co-owner of the mortuary, said a misunderstanding led to police being called. 
 
 Johnson said the building’s landlord arrived at the mortuary Tuesday morning to kick him out, but he wasn’t there. The landlord found the bodies and called police. 
 
 “This is a funeral home and when you go into a funeral home you can expect to find bodies,” Johnson said. 
 
 Kyle Smith, counsel for the Texas Funeral Service Commission, said the mortuary’s state license expires this month, and that the business is the focus of five separate commission investigations. 
 
 Johnson said that his business will eventually be vindicated and that misunderstandings with state and local officials have been worked out. The mortuary is still in business, he said. 
 
 “We will continue to serve our families,” Johnson said. “Here, or maybe somewhere else.” 
 
 No one arrested 
 
 Johnson Family Mortuary is owned by Dondre Johnson and his wife, Rachel Johnson, who is listed on a Texas secretary of state’s franchise tax document as the registered agent for the limited liability corporation. 
 
 They were asked to vacate the building at 1051 S. Handley Drive in east Fort Worth about two weeks ago, Bush said. 
 
 The building owner found the unattended bodies shortly before 8 a.m. Tuesday and called police, Bush said. 
 
 Homicide investigators executed a search warrant about noon on suspicion of abuse of a corpse, a felony, according to Bush’s news release. 
 
 Johnson said some of the bodies had been embalmed and were ready to be interred. Others were in caskets and ready to be moved. One was ready to be shipped to Nairobi, Kenya, Johnson said. 
 
 The bodies that had not been embalmed were covered in black garbage bags, Johnson said. 
 
 The building does not have a refrigeration system for the bodies, Johnson said, explaining that refrigeration is not required under state law. 
 
 “We are operating legally,” Johnson said. “If we had not been operating legally they would have taken me away in handcuffs.” 
 
 No one had been arrested by late Tuesday, Bush said. The investigation is continuing. 
 
 The medical examiner’s office is now responsible for identifying the bodies and notifying next of kin, Bush said. 
 
 Dondre Johnson’s twin brother, Derrick Johnson said, he was a part-owner but had not been present at the business in weeks but helps out as needed. 
 
 “All this caught me by surprise,” Derrick Johnson said. “I hate that the whole situation happened because it reflects on me, my family and the other family members who are involved, and our godfather who mentored us, Gregory Spencer.” 
 
 The twin brothers began working in Fort Worth in the 1990s under the direction of the late Gregory W. Spencer, according to the mortuary’s website. 
 
 The Johnson brothers will be back together in the funeral business soon and other business ventures are in the works, Derrick Johnson said. 
 
 “We are praying for the families as well as ourselves and we hate that this has happened,” Derrick Johnson said. “No weapon formed against us shall prosper and we thank all the haters for the free advertising.” 
 
 Mitch Mitchell, 817-390-7752 Twitter: @mitchmitchel3 
 
 Looking for comments? ||||| The owner of a Fort Worth mortuary where police say they found several unattended and unidentified bodies Tuesday insists it’s all a misunderstanding. 
 
 “We’ve done nothing wrong,” said Dondre Johnson, who runs the Johnson Family Mortuary. “This is a funeral home. This is where we keep bodies.” 
 
 Johnson said his landlord called police this morning after finding seven bodies inside the building on Handley Drive in East Fort Worth. He said some of the dead are already embalmed and in caskets, one of them bound for Nairobi, Kenya. 
 
 “Things happen in life,” he said of the investigation. “Pray for us.” 
 
 Dondre’s brother Derrick, who says he runs a limousine business, said the bodies were well-preserved, but a foul odor emanated from the building. 
 
 Police say the owner of the building asked the renters to leave two weeks ago. This morning, the owner checked on the property and found the business had been left unattended with multiple dead bodies inside, authorities say. 
 
 Officers are still searching the funeral home, and officials from the medical examiner’s office began removing the bodies this afternoon. The charge on the search warrant is abuse of corpse, said Sgt. Raymond Bush, a Fort Worth police spokesman. 
 
 Bush said it’s too early in the investigation to release the condition of the bodies or how long they were left unattended. The electricity and air conditioning were still on inside the building. The main concern at this point is to return the bodies to the families. 
 
 “That’s our priority to find closure for the families,” Bush said. 
 
 Any family members concerned about their loved ones’ remains should call the Tarrant County medical examiner’s office at 817-920-5700, Ext. 5. 
 
 The Johnson Family Mortuary, started by twin brothers Derrick and Dondre, has had an active funeral director’s license with the state since July 2011 and is current through the end of this month. The funeral home has no previous disciplinary history with the Texas Funeral Service Commission. 
 
 Benetha Johnson said she worked with the Johnson brothers previously. She described them as good people. 
 
 “They are some good young men,” she said. “I just don’t know why this happened.” 
 
 Johnson said she’d heard there were two funerals at the building Saturday. 
 
 Another bystander said the Johnson family had always been helpful to grieving families. The brothers put on the funeral for one of Denise Horrice’s family members. 
 
 “I’m surprised because they are really good people,” she said. “I can’t say nothing bad about them.” 
 
 The Johnson twins began working in the business when they were 11, according to the business’s website. Later they were mentored by noted Fort Worth pastor and funeral director Gregory Spencer, who was found strangled at an Arlington motel in June 2003 (a Louisiana parolee was sentenced to life in prison for the murder). 
 
 Three years later the twins struck out on their own, turning an abandoned casket store into the D & D Johnson Funeral Home, and later Johnson Family Mortuary. 
 
 “Both locally and abroad, ‘The Twins,’ as they are fondly referred, have raised the bar of funeral service,” their website says. “Their presentation is unparalleled and their service is incomparable.” 
 
 There are five complaints currently open against Johnson Family Mortuary, though officials with the commission can’t talk about them until they are closed. Two of three previous complaints were closed without findings of wrongdoing. The third, filed over a late death certificate, resulted in a probationary penalty. 
 
 Staff writer Jon McClure contributed to this report. 
 

– Police who found at least seven corpses in a building in Fort Worth, Texas, yesterday quickly determined there was no serial killer at work—but there were funeral directors who had apparently moved out with work unfinished. Police say the building's owner evicted the Johnson Family Mortuary two weeks ago and he discovered the bodies when he went to check on the building, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports. The unattended bodies ranged in age from infants to adults and police say they were in "varying stages of decomposition, some quite advanced." The twin brothers who ran the business could face charges of abuse of a corpse, but they insist it is all a misunderstanding. "We've done nothing wrong," one of the brothers tells the Dallas Morning News. "This is a funeral home. This is where we keep bodies." The electricity and air conditioning in the building were still on, but it did not have a refrigeration system. A spokesman for the Texas Funeral Service Commission says the mortuary's license expires this month, and the business already is the focus of five separate investigations.