Macoupin County state’s attorney asks for special prosecutor in Heinz case

[October 03, 2024]  By Beth Hundsdorfer

A Macoupin County judge approved the appointment of a special prosecutor to review a criminal case against August Heinz, the funeral home director accused of giving dozens of families the wrong ashes.

But the special prosecutor won’t be looking into Heinz’s handling of human remains. The prosecutor is instead looking into whether Heinz committed forgery. And the victim in that allegation is his ex-wife.

Michael Havera, of the State Appellate Prosecutor’s Office, entered his appearance in the forgery case, but no criminal charges have yet been filed.

In a motion filed last month, Macoupin County State’s Attorney Jordan Garrison requested the special prosecutor, citing a close family relationship. Garrison and Heinz’s ex-wife are childhood friends.

“I can confirm that my client is the victim in this case,” said Rick Verticchio, a Macoupin County attorney who represents Heinz’s ex-wife in the divorce case. He declined to elaborate on the nature of the case.

Capitol News Illinois is not revealing the identity of Heinz’s ex-wife for safety reasons.

The motion for a special prosecutor in the forgery case comes days after an affidavit was filed in a civil lawsuit. The affidavit signed by Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon stated his investigation revealed that Heinz gave the wrong remains to at least 75 families across the country, but the actual number of families impacted may be closer to 800.

That number is based on the number of cremations Heinz handled between 2017, the time of the first known allegation, and 2023. High temperatures used to incinerate bodies during the cremation process degrade DNA, making it impossible to be sure whether the remains given to families by Heinz are truly those of their loved ones.

Allmon’s investigation also uncovered that Heinz stored bodies in unrefrigerated rooms at the funeral home for weeks, allowing them to decompose. The investigation also found that Heinz left bodies in local hospital morgues for weeks, and mislabeled bodies and cremated human remains.

Heinz Funeral Home is pictured in Carlinville, Illinois. (Capitol News Illinois file photo)

When the investigation came to light, it wasn’t clear if Heinz had broken the law. The Illinois State Police investigated the case, but, as of Tuesday, no criminal charges have been filed.

But the civil cases against Heinz and the funeral home continue.

Two civil cases are pending in Macoupin County and four in Sangamon County. In one of the Sangamon County civil cases, Heinz’s attorneys are seeking a court order for mediation. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for later this month.

The Heinz case also spurred legislation.

After the revelations about the Carlinville funeral home came to light, the Illinois legislature passed a bill requiring funeral directors to keep a chain of custody with unique identifiers that stay with the remains to ensure the proper identification through burial or cremation. The Dignity in Death Act became law in August.

The act also requires the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation to inspect a funeral home within 10 days of receiving a complaint.

In the Heinz case, Morgan County Coroner Marci Patterson filed a complaint with the agency six months before Allmon went public. One of Patterson’s deputies went to the funeral home and found a decomposing body in an embalming room. Despite Patterson’s repeated pleas, the agency took no action to temporarily suspend Heinz’s license.

After Allmon went public at news conference, IDFPR permanently revoked Heinz’s license.

Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.