Officials have identified 57 sets of cremated remains, including those of babies and infants, that were discovered last fall inside a fire-damaged Cobb County funeral home.
Marietta police found the remains at the shuttered Medford-Peden Funeral Home and Crematory on Canton Road in November following a fire months earlier. The Cobb Medical Examiner’s Office on Wednesday released the names of those identified.
“We hope to provide answers to any family with lingering questions about a loved one’s passing,” ME Christopher Gulledge said in a statement. “Our office has worked tirelessly to identify these cremains using various methods, and we are committed to reuniting them with their families.”
The ME’s office posted the names on its website: www.cobbcounty.org/medical-examiner/cremains. Families have until May 30 to claim the remains, officials said.
Those identified ranged in age from babies to nonagenarians, and many died within the past few years, according to online obituaries and death notices that match more than a dozen names that appear on the list. One woman died as far back as 2009, according to an obituary.
The funeral home had contracted with the Georgia Department of Family and Children Services to provide indigent burial services, according to the ME. A representative of the state agency did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The building had been scheduled for a foreclosure auction when it was severely charred in an April 2024 blaze, Cobb officials said. At the time, fire officials said no human remains or cremated ashes were inside. The fire was extinguished in 20 minutes.
Credit: Ben Hendren
Credit: Ben Hendren
But on Nov. 19, officers found the funeral home vacant and unsecured after a concerned caller from out of state saw photos of the building on social media. The eerie images had circulated online in a post titled: “Abandoned funeral home I went to yesterday. Caskets, chemical and human remains all left,” according to a police report.
After finding the front door forced open, police said they discovered a large amount of chemical and about 35 boxes of cremated human remains, according to the report. The boxes had death certificates and other identifying documents attached to them, police spokesman Chuck McPhilamy said at the time.
He also noted that some of the issues could lead to criminal charges.
When police searched the building, no one was inside, though a back room had been set up with a mattress. Officers could tell someone had been living there after finding clothing, a backpack, personal items and food that had been moved inside since the fire, the report stated.
Marietta police and fire officials did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday.
The funeral home, with agent Perry Heard Jr., was registered in 2010 and dissolved in September 2021, according to records from the Georgia Corporations Division. Heard was also listed as the registered agent for another company, CPLV LLC, whose principal office was located at a nearly identical Marietta address: 1408 Canton Highway. It was registered in January 2018 and remained active, with 2024 listed as its last annual registration year, the records added. The funeral home and registered agent physical addresses were both listed at 1408 Canton Road.
The funeral home’s phone number has been disconnected. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reached out to the funeral home via email and to Heard by phone but has not received a response.
The ME asked that family members or loved ones of those identified contact the office at 770-590-6596 or via email at gillian.fletcher@cobbcounty.org.
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