Main: Richardson Mortuary in Houston, Texas (KPRC). Insets: Images of the inside of Richardson Mortuary from April 2025 (YouTube).
Two funeral home directors in Texas are facing a spate of felonies after authorities say they found a dozen decomposing bodies in “very dirty, hot,” and “not sanitary” conditions, with one body that was so far gone it was described as “largely liquified.”
Michael Richardson and Gayle Elaine Bell were taken into custody last week and charged with three counts each of abuse of a corpse, court records reviewed by Law&Crime show.
According to a probable cause affidavit, officers with the Houston Police Department on April 11 responded to a call from a woman reporting a possible case of abuse of a corpse at Richardson Mortuary, which is in the 3200 block of Brookfield Drive. The woman said her mother died on March 31, and she had paid Richardson more than $17,000 to prepare the body and coordinate the funeral.
The victim said she met with Richardson, who identified himself as the “funeral director,” later in the day on March 31, and that he took custody of her mother”s body at Richardson Mortuary, which is where he said the body would be stored.
In the days leading up to the mother’s funeral, scheduled to take place April 12, the victim said she made multiple attempts to meet with Richardson and his employees at the funeral home to bring clothes for her mother but said they “refused to meet her.”
The victim decided to take matters into her own hands and went to the funeral home on April 11, where she made a shocking discovery.
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“[The victim] said she found her deceased mother in a coffin covered in bugs and in an advanced state of decay,” the affidavit states. “[The victim] said she also noticed several deceased bodies in the warm building in different stages of decomposition. The building was open to the elements, very dirty, hot, not sanitary, and under construction with a strong odor of decomposition. [The victim] said she was disgusted and immediately called her brother … along with the police. [The victim’s] brother, arrived and video recorded the conditions inside the building. [He] posted the poor conditions of the building and the multiple decomposing deceased individuals at Richardson Mortuary on social media.”
The video appears to show more than a dozen caskets strewn about the building amid trash, tools, and random pieces of furniture due to the building being under construction. One room appeared to have multiple visible bodies on gurneys — some covered with blankets, some completely out in the open. Police and multiple witnesses said the entire building was completely opened to the elements due to the construction.
Police said the video went viral and resulted in the families of the deceased and community members gathering outside of the establishment as another company was hired to transport the bodies to a sanitary facility. The owner of that facility also provided a statement to police.
“[The witness] said he found twelve decedents stored at Richardson Mortuary,” the affidavit says. “[The witness] said the building was under construction, dirty, and the air conditioner was not working. [He] said the decedents were in various stages of decomposition including one decedent that was largely liquified. Witness Jackson said the decedents were not in cold storage but stored in a dirty, hot room.”
The witness told authorities he still has not been paid by Richardson or Bell for transporting and storing the bodies.
A list of the decedents was recovered from the premises, with one deceased female listed as “body liquified.”
The Texas Funeral Services Commission on April 14 issued a cease and desist order for Richardson Mortuary which said the establishment “engaged in fraudulent, unprofessional, or deceptive conduct in providing funeral services or merchandise to a customer and engaged in dishonest conduct, willful conduct or negligence in the practice of embalming or funeral directing that is likely to or does deceive, defraud, or otherwise injure the public.”
Richardson and Bell were not being held in detention as of Tuesday. Prosecutors had requested bond for both defendants be set at $5,000. The defendants are scheduled to appear in Harris County Circuit Court on Oct. 15, records show.
