A southern Indiana funeral home’s license has been suspended after police found more than 30 unrefrigerated bodies there last month, including some that were badly decomposed, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday. In a news release, Attorney General Todd Rokita said Randy Ray Lankford of Lankford Funeral Home and Family Center in Jeffersonville agreed last week to surrender his and the facility’s licenses. The move came after Rokita’s office filed for an emergency license suspension with the state Funeral and Cemetery Service Board. On Thursday, the State Council approved the suspensions. “Grieving families must be able to trust that the remains of their loved ones will be respected and handled properly,” Rokita said in a statement. “Additionally, the unsanitary conditions at this funeral home posed a clear and immediate threat to public health and safety.” The suspensions mark the latest chapter in a strange story that began July 1 when police in Jeffersonville, a suburb of Louisville, discovered 31 unrefrigerated bodies throughout the facility, including some that police said were “in an advanced stage of decomposition.” Officials said the cremated remains of 17 people were also found. Days later, two families sued the funeral home in Clark Superior Court. Rokita’s office said in the statement that its investigation is ongoing and asked anyone with information to call the permit enforcement division.
