LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A Nevada board shuttered a Las Vegas funeral residence after discovering it did not well timed bury or cremate our bodies — together with one case the place a girl was not cremated for nearly 11 months.
The Nevada Board of Funeral and Cemetery Providers voted final week to tug the license of McDermott’s Funeral House and Cremation Providers. The board met over two days to assessment 4 complaints filed towards the enterprise, which is situated in an industrial space on Western Avenue close to Sahara Avenue.
On Friday, following the closure order, officers with the Clark County coroner’s workplace moved our bodies from the enterprise’s crematory.
The principle grievance concerned the funeral residence’s failure to “[cremate] or otherwise [dispose] of” eight our bodies for an prolonged time frame. Nevada regulation stipulates {that a} funeral residence should bury or cremate a physique “within a reasonable time after death,” nevertheless, an actual period of time shouldn’t be written into regulation.
The Nevada Board of Funeral and Cemetery Providers voted final week to tug the license of McDermott’s Funeral House and Cremation Providers. The board met over two days to assessment 4 complaints filed towards the enterprise, which is situated in an industrial space on Western Avenue close to Sahara Avenue. (KLAS)
In a single case, a girl’s physique remained on the crematory for practically 11 months earlier than cremation, board paperwork mentioned.
The allegations surrounded board inspections in July and August 2024, the place an inspector decided a number of our bodies in McDermott’s care have been there for an “extended period.” The inspector additionally situated “three coolers containing numerous bodies that were leaking blood and bodily fluids,” paperwork mentioned.
Photographs supplied within the documentation present stained sheets, which the inspector notes weren’t modified after a subsequent inspection. Throughout one go to, the inspector famous “fluids of a body… had dripped onto a body on a lower shelf and onto the floor.”
Throughout one inspection, one physique was mendacity within the cooler with no lid and the particular person’s face seen, paperwork mentioned. The funeral residence instructed the board the physique was awaiting preparation. (KLAS)
Throughout one inspection, one physique was mendacity within the cooler with no lid and the particular person’s face seen, paperwork mentioned. The funeral residence instructed the board the physique was awaiting preparation.
The funeral director instructed the board that only one worker was working within the crematory through the inspection and that the inspectors arrived earlier than enterprise hours.
In one other case, a household filed a grievance after their cherished one, who died in December 2023, was not cremated for 51 days after her dying, paperwork mentioned. An investigative report signifies the household was instructed there was a two-week delay and that the corporate was “running behind.”
In a response to the allegations, the funeral director wrote to the board, indicating a lot of the our bodies awaiting burial or cremation concerned social companies and that “takes weeks, months or in extreme cases over a year to complete.” That course of entails the county paying for the funeral residence’s companies if a household can not or if the particular person doesn’t have subsequent of kin.
“We do our best to make sure our bodies are stored in a clean, dignified way,” he wrote to the board, including he felt the inspections unfairly focused his enterprise, paperwork mentioned.
In a response to the allegations, the funeral director wrote to the board, indicating a lot of the our bodies awaiting burial or cremation concerned social companies and that “takes weeks, months or in extreme cases over a year to complete.” (KLAS)
The board additionally cited McDermott’s for opening an workplace house on Decatur Boulevard with out formal approval, paperwork mentioned.
In 2021, the board cited McDermott’s for the same delay in service.
State regulation requires a dying certificates to be filed inside three days until an post-mortem is required, in line with the Workplace of Very important Information.
In an e-mail to eight Information Now, McDermott’s normal supervisor referred to as the inspections “baseless,” saying the board denied them a possibility for “corrective action.” She mentioned she wrote a letter to Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo to escalate the scenario.
Las Vegas police and the Clark County coroner’s workplace work at McDermott’s crematory on Aug. 8, 2025. (KLAS)
She didn’t return a request to schedule an interview on these accusations or the board’s findings. Minutes from the board’s assembly final week weren’t posted to the board’s web site as of Tuesday, because the board will vote on their approval throughout its subsequent assembly in November.
Seven members comprise the board, together with two who oversee funeral companies at two competing Las Vegas funeral houses, in line with the board’s web site.
8 Information Now Investigator David Charns could be reached at [email protected].
