According to the Ohio Attorney General’s office, 90 cremated remains were found in a church basement in Akron.
Troy Seehase, an inspector with the Ohio Department of Funeral and Embalmers, alerted the Bureau of Criminal Investigations (BCI) about the discovery of cremains. Angie Small, a self-proclaimed urban explorer, discovered the containers at Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church.
A young man was seen on January 9th of this year entering a side door of a reportedly vacant church. She discovered boxes on the first floor of the building when she entered to tell them to leave. As well as the names and dates of the deceased, the boxes had the name Tri-County Cremation Services.
White boxes and plastic bags containing cremains were found in the building. At least 90 suspected cremains have been identified. Shawnte Hardin, the senior pastor of the church, is the subject of an ongoing investigation.
Last October, Hardin was indicted by the Lucas County Grand Jury on 37 criminal counts, including tampering with records, theft, abuse of corpses, identity fraud, acting as a funeral director without a license, and passing bad checks.
According to the attorney representing Hardin, he was holding the cremains for Robert Tate. After an investigation revealed that Tate had improperly stored bodies, he lost his license in 2015 as a funeral director in Toledo. Since then, Tate has died.
Below is the complete list. Contact the Attorney General’s office at 855-BCI-Ohio (855-224-6446) if you have a family member on the list and need more information about what you can do.
