Detroit police have opened a criminal investigation into Cantrell Funeral Home after the bodies of 10 fetuses and one full-term baby were found in the ceiling of the former funeral home Friday night. It is not clear how long the remains had been there, but the property's current owner, Naveed Syed, said he was told at least one of the bodies had been there since 2009. RELATED LINKS The Cantrell Funeral home was shut down this past April due to several violations and "deplorable, unsanitary conditions." Investigators found bodies not stored properly, including at least two that reportedly appeared to be covered in mold. Detroit Police Chief James Craig said they were called by the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) after LARA received an anonymous tip about the bodies. Now, the department has opened a criminal investigation on allegations of failing to supervise a final disposition of a dead human body in excess of 180 days. That makes it a felony, Craig said. Craig told reporters on Monday afternoon that he has spoken with the Michigan Attorney General and the Wayne County Prosecutor, and expects to speak with Prosecutor Kym Worthy again before filing a criminal complaint. According to Craig, some of the bodies that were found were clearly marked, while others weren't and that will make it hard to identify them. "In my 31 ½ years I have never heard of such a case. It’s deeply troubling," Craig said. He added that the DPD peer support team was dispatched to the scene Friday night to talk with officers who were investigating. Craig said that investigators had not yet spoken with the former owner, Raymond Cantrell, but they will speak with him at the appropriate time of the investigation. LARA had previously been called to the former funeral home in August, according to Craig, where they found the body of one fetus and also found several cremated human remains. Syed had been converting the former funeral home into a community center. LARA reported Cantrell Funeral Home had 60 days to either assign its existing prepaid contracts to another person registered under the Prepaid Act and notify the Department and contract buyers of the assignment within 30 days of the assignment. The funeral home's other option was to cancel their current contracts and issue refunds to each contract buyer, providing copies of refund checks and correspondence to each contract buyer to the Department within 90 days, unless the Department modifies, vacates, or extends the terms of the Order. A spokesperson from LARA has released this statement regarding their investigation:<doc-sep>Detroit police are considering criminal charges in the case of a former funeral home where the decomposing bodies of 10 fetuses and a baby were found above a ceiling, officials said. "There's a criminal investigation that has been launched," Officer Dan Donakowski, Detroit Police Department spokesman, told NBC News on Tuesday about the bodies found at the former Cantrell Funeral Home. "From there, all information will be sent to the Wayne County prosecutor's office." The investigation was formally filed on Monday but the spokesman said there is no set deadline for when it would end. The baby's bodies were first found last week at the Cantrell Funeral Home when officials at the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs received an anonymous letter tipping them off as to where the bodies were. A small casket contained one of the remains that were found by Michigan inspectors in Cantrell Funeral Home. Carlos Osorio / AP "In my 41-and-a-half years, I have never heard of such a case as deeply troubling," Detroit Chief of Police James Craig told reporters at a Monday news conference. The fetuses were found together in a cardboard-like box while the full-term infant was in a coffin, Craig said. The department is looking into felony charges related to the final disposition of dead bodies, according to Craig. The police chief said they have yet to confirm how the funeral home came into possession of the bodies and has reached out to the state attorney general and county prosecutor to discuss the case. Police have said they would identify the found bodies with the help of the medical examiner’s office, and plan to notify family members accordingly. Before discovery of the bodies, the Cantrell Funeral Home had already been subject of an investigation by the state licensing agency due to multiple occupational code violations, including an "unsanitary embalming rooms" and "improper storage of embalmed bodies," according to a statement issued by the agency. The department's finds are what had forced the funeral home to shut down in April. Raymond Cantrell, the former owner of the funeral home, told NBC News affiliate WDIV in Detroit Friday that he is willing to speak to police and claims he did not order employees to hide the bodies. "On behalf of my family I'm really sorry that it happened and totally appalled. The fact it occurred. I'm just thanking God it wasn't something I had any involvement in," he told the local affiliate. On Monday, Craig told reporters the department has yet to reach out to Cantrell.<doc-sep>The Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs released a timeline of the investigation into 11 fetuses found in the ceiling of the Cantrell Funeral Home. The funeral home was shut down this past April due to several violations and "deplorable, unsanitary conditions." An anonymous letter led investigators to finding the bodies of 11 fetuses who were found in the ceiling of the former funeral home. The remains were found in boxes and two small caskets. Four additional cremated remains were located inside the home, which were discovered over the past two days by a worker who was doing electrical work in the basement. The funeral home was founded by Raymond Cantrell Sr. in 1985. After his death in 2016, it was signed over to Raymond Cantrell II, who was saddled with unpaid property taxes, unpaid vendors and a funeral home in poor condition. By April 2018, state inspectors had come in and shut the funeral home down after they found "deplorable, unsanitary conditions and other violations" that included decomposing bodies and "Improper storage of embalmed bodies." Cantrell II never reopened the home and the county then foreclosed on it due to back taxes. New owner Naveed Syed was renovating the property into a community center when the bodies were discovered. Cantrell II called the discovery of the bodies "unconscionable." Detroit police are investigating to find out who is responsible for hiding and leaving the bodies of the babies. View LARA's timeline on Cantrell Funeral Home below:<doc-sep>
When the parents of Raymond Cantrell II divorced years ago, it was part of their divorce decree that he would inherit the funeral home Raymond Cantrell Sr. founded many years ago. RELATED LINKS Cantrell Sr. died at the age of 96 in 2016. By then his widow Annetta Cantrell, who was nearly 40 years his junior, had already opened QA Cantrell Funeral Home in Eastpointe with their daughters, perhaps preparing for their future after the passing of her husband, knowing that the well-known funeral home on Mack Avenue would no longer belong to them. And the split wasn't a pleasant one. According to Raymond Cantrell II, when Cantrell Funeral Home in Detroit was signed over to him on May 30, 2017, he was saddled with unpaid property taxes, unpaid vendors, and a funeral home in poor condition. By April 2018, state inspectors had come in and shut the funeral home down after they found "deplorable, unsanitary conditions and other violations" that included decomposing bodies and "Improper storage of embalmed bodies," according to a press release from the state's Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). Cantrell II would never reopen his late father's funeral home. And the county then foreclosed on the property due to back taxes. Then Friday, acting on information contained in an anonymous letter, state inspectors went back to the property, now being renovated by its new owner Naveed Syed, into a community center. Following the details contained in the anonymous letter, inspectors were led to an area in a false ceiling where they discovered the bodies of 11 babies, two of them located in a casket together and nine tiny bodies wrapped in plastic inside a box. Cantrell II said he was appalled when he heard about the bodies of the babies hidden inside the funeral home he owned for about a year. Cantrell II said he tried to correct all of the things that were wrong, calling the discovery "unconscionable" and a "gross injustice" that reflects on his parents' business and him. Detroit Police are now investigating to find out who is responsible for hiding and leaving the bodies of the babies. One baby may have died around October of 2017, according to Chief Craig. Syed told 7 Action News, "According to the detective, one of the bodies was here since 2009."