ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. – A woman was devastated to learn her father's remains were rotting inside an Atlantic Beach funeral home weeks after he was supposed to have been cremated.
Lynn Simon said her father, Burton Acker, died in May at age 77. She only learned that state inspectors had found his decomposed remains inside a broken refrigerator at the First Coast Funeral Home last week by watching an I-TEAM report and calling the state to confirm it was him.
Simon said she is heartbroken and angry, saying he deserved so much more respect.
“The condition of the body keeps going through my head,” Simon said. “He deserved more than this. He was a Vietnam veteran. He deserved more respect than what he received from John Rayan and Amanda Rayan.”
Simon said she made weekly payments for the cost of her father's cremation to John Rayan, manager of First Coast Funeral Home and its sister company, Beaches Memorial Park, starting the day after her dad died.
"He explained until I got at least half of it paid, my dad would be there and then he would send him off after you paid off half. Just half,” Simon said.
She has the receipts showing that by May 11 -- within a week of her dad's passing of heart failure -- she had paid half of the $2,760 Rayan charged her, so she says her father should have been cremated. She paid off the other half by June 2.
But inspectors with the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services found Acker's decomposing body last Thursday -- more than 2 months after his death.
“He needs to go to jail. This is fraud,” Simon said. “Disrespect of the body, or however they put it.”
Improper disposal of human remains is a crime, which is why Simon said she expected a police officer would have come to her house to tell her about the discovery, but the I-TEAM learned the state inspector's office never called the Atlantic Beach Police Department or the state attorney's office to report it last Thursday.
Monday, the I-TEAM emailed the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services asking why. A spokesperson told the I-TEAM Monday afternoon, "The nature of the finding is precisely why we contacted the state attorney's office."
Yet, in a statement sent to the I-TEAM at 2:04 p.m. Monday, the state attorney's office wrote, "The state attorney's office was not notified by the state agency regarding this matter. We are now aware, and it is part of the ongoing investigation."
The state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services has yet to explain the inconsistency.
Funeral home owner Amanda Rayan told the state inspector Thursday that the body was already decomposed when she received it, even though it had been transported to the cemetery's office building the same day Acker died.
To make matters even worse, Simon still didn't know where her father’s remains were Monday morning.
“I haven’t been contacted as to where his body is. The state hasn’t even contacted me to tell me it's him. I had to contact them,” Simon said.
Simon called Tallahassee after seeing the News4Jax story. Simon finally got a call from the state Monday afternoon confirming the body found was her father's.
“Now I have to go through all these emotions again because of John Rayan. It's like he died again. Now I have to find out where his body is.”
The state office told her that her father's body is in the process of being cremated and she should have his ashes by Tuesday.
As a result of what happened to Acker, the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services suspended the funeral license. The business' cemetery license has not been valid since Dec. 31, 2015 and the owner's license to sell pre-need contracts was suspended July 1, which means the cemetery is only permitted to perform burials involving contracts that were written before Dec. 31, 2015. It is not allowed the write any new contracts, according to the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery and Consumer Services.
Asked what to tell customers who have contracts with First Coast Funeral Home or Beaches Memorial Park, the state sent this statement:
Please have consumers who contact you with Beaches-related pre-need contract questions contact our office. In some instances, consumers can obtain a partial or full refund for the amounts paid for the pre-need contract from the Florida Preneed Consumer Protection Trust Fund. We have designated an individual who shall personally serve as the lead for all Beaches-related Consumer Protection Trust Fund claims. Consumers should mention that they are calling with Beaches/First Coast Funeral Home questions so that they may be directed toward the specified person."