Centre County funeral home let woman’s corpse decompose for 6 weeks, lawsuit alleges
A woman alleged in a lawsuit filed Thursday that her mother’s corpse was left in a Centre County funeral home to decompose for six weeks instead of being properly cremated.
Sherry Cramer’s lawsuit also alleged investigators discovered additional corpses in the Singer-Kader-Neff Funeral Home that may have been improperly handled as well.
“Families trust funeral homes to treat their loved ones with dignity and respect,” Cramer’s attorney Joe Sauder told the Centre Daily Times in a statement. “The allegations in this case are deeply troubling, and our client is seeking accountability for the extreme distress and suffering caused by the defendants’ actions.”
Cramer, of Pennsylvania Furnace, sued the funeral home, 135 W. Main St. in Howard, and its owner Garrett A. Singer for unspecified monetary damages. A message was left Thursday afternoon with the funeral home.
The lawsuit said the funeral home’s alleged conduct was “extreme and outrageous and went beyond all possible bounds of decency.”
Joan E. Donley, 92, of Pennsylvania Furnace, died in November. She was a former secretary at Penn State and enjoyed crocheting, loved animals and loved weekly dinners with her family, her obituary read.
“She had a heart of gold and was always willing to help those in need,” her obituary read.
After turning to the funeral home for cremation services and a death certificate, Cramer said in the lawsuit she received no clear response and never received her mother’s ashes.
On one occasion, Cramer said the funeral home told her the coroner had her mother’s body. On another, Cramer said the funeral home told her it had her mother’s ashes.
The lawsuit further alleged the Pennsylvania State Police and a coroner’s office arrived in December at the funeral home in response to “numerous complaints regarding missing death certificates.” Messages left Thursday afternoon with state police at Rockview and Centre County District Attorney Bernie Cantorna’s office were not immediately returned.
Cramer said she then discovered her mother’s remains had not been cremated and were instead left in the funeral home for six weeks without proper storage. Donley’s corpse was found on a table, not embalmed and in an advanced state of decomposition, the lawsuit claimed.
The lawsuit did not specify the condition or number of other corpses investigators allegedly found in the funeral home.
Attorney Louis T. Glantz wrote in the suit that the funeral home was required to treat Donley’s body with “dignity and respect.” He further wrote that Cramer has “severe emotional distress.”
No charges have yet been filed.
The five-count lawsuit includes claims of negligent infliction of emotional distress, gross negligence and interference with a corpse.
This story was originally published March 13, 2025 at 5:11 PM.