Chicago-area family questions mother's cremated remains as several investigations continue

GLENWOOD, Ill. - The daughters of a 70-year-old Chicago-area woman say they were already struggling with the loss of their mother. Now, an expanding investigation involving the company that arranged her cremation has left them with a painful question: Are the remains they received actually hers?

"We are stuck at the ending of her life," Tammy Walker said. "We are going through it all over again, speculating if this is our mom."

Florence Walker died on April 8 after a two-year battle with stage four cancer. Her daughters say they immediately became her caregivers after her diagnosis, making sure she made it to medical appointments and had the support she needed.

"When we found out she had stage four cancer, we went right into caretaker mode," one of her daughters said.

The family says that when Walker entered hospice care, a social worker recommended Planet Green Cremations in Glenwood to handle her final arrangements.

But Planet Green is now part of an expanding investigation.

Just days ago, evidence technicians removed dozens of boxes from the Glenwood business. Business records connect Planet Green to Johanna and Clark Morgan, who operated South Chicago Chapel, where authorities recently discovered 56 bodies stored in conditions described by the state as deplorable.

Those developments prompted Walker's daughters to take another look at the remains they received months earlier.

Family says remains looked like rocks

What they're saying:

Colandra Watts said the sisters planned to transfer their mother's cremated remains into an urn together.

"We wanted to pour the ashes in the urn together, but immediately, it seemed very chunky and like rocks," Watts said.

FOX 32 asked Peace and Paradise Crematory to review photographs of the material the family received.

An expert with the crematory said the photographs appear to show "sizable fragments that look like bone."

Illinois law requires cremation to include the processing of identifiable bone fragments until those fragments are no longer identifiable. The expert cautioned that photographs alone cannot establish exactly how the remains were handled or whether a violation of state law occurred.

The condition of the remains also does not, by itself, establish whether they belong to Florence Walker. That question has made the family's concerns about the documentation and chain of custody even more significant.

Records identify funeral director, crematory

Dig deeper:

Florence Walker's death certificate lists Johanna Morgan as the funeral director.

State records show Morgan was licensed when Walker died. Four months later, on Aug. 5, the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation temporarily suspended Morgan's funeral director and embalmer license.

According to the state disciplinary record, regulators found Morgan's continued practice posed "a danger to the public safety, interest and welfare." The record also shows Morgan had faced previous disciplinary action.

Records reviewed by FOX 32 show Planet Green was not itself the crematory that handled Walker's cremation. Documentation indicates Walker was sent to Bohemian National Cemetery for cremation.

That distinction is now part of what the family wants investigators to unravel: where Walker's body was taken, who handled it at each step and whether the remains eventually returned to her daughters can be conclusively identified as hers.

Family searches for certainty

Big picture view:

Oversight of Illinois' funeral and cremation industry is divided among agencies. The Illinois Comptroller oversees crematories and certain pre-need funeral transactions, while IDFPR licenses funeral directors and embalmers. Families with concerns involving crematories can submit complaints to the Comptroller's PLACE Division for investigation.

As the broader investigation continues, Walker's daughters say they are preserving the remains they received and searching for answers.

They had already spent two years caring for their mother through cancer and then endured her death.

Now, they say, uncertainty surrounding her final arrangements has interrupted their ability to say goodbye.

"We are still in the grieving process," one daughter said, "and this is another add-on to what we are going through."

For Walker's daughters, the question is painfully simple: Is this really their mother?

Susana A. Mendoza did issue Fox Chicago a statement saying:

"While the Illinois Office of Comptroller does not oversee storefronts like Planet Green or funeral directors like Joanna Morgan, I share in the heartbreak and outrage these families are experiencing. No family should have to endure additional pain and uncertainty after losing a loved one.

That is why I have proposed a comprehensive overhaul of Illinois’ death care regulations, including the creation of felony penalties for bad actors and bringing all aspects of the industry under one regulatory body with clear accountability."

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