Suburban Chicago man accused of posing as funeral director without license, mishandling remains
A man being investigated for mishandling people's remains at a crematory has also been in trouble for taking bodies from a hospital without a funeral director's license.
Clark Morgan's past troubles are coming to light as a family accuses him of posing as a funeral director and mishandling their mother's remains.
Rachelle Whitney-Bey said in 2020, her family was having a viewing for her 82-year-old mother, Helen Mercer. As Whitney-Bey approached the casket to say goodbye, her mother's eyes suddenly opened because her body was in a state of decomposition.
"It was hurtful. I couldn't, I couldn't stand there and look at it," she said.
Seeing the condition of her mother's remains in the casket was troubling, especially given the life Mercer led. Whitney-Bey said her mom dedicated her life to her family, community and her job managing properties for the Chicago Housing Authority.
"She was well-loved by everyone," Whitney-Bey said. "She wanted to see everybody happy."
Rachelle said her mother was in a state of decay due to improper embalming, and without any makeup.
"It's not fair to the families," Whitney-Bey said. "It's not fair to the deceased, and they've been profiting from it."
Morgan was involved in Whitney-Bey's mother's funeral, and also runs a cremation business.
Whitney-Bey and her family recorded their confrontation with him at McCullough Funeral Home's Ford Heights location. They questioned his credentials for running the funeral and asked for his title.
On the video they shared, Clark says he's the owner. When then asked if he's a funeral director, Clark can be seen on the video replying, "Yes."
But records from the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulations, which regulates funeral homes, show Morgan has never been a licensed funeral director. The only license he held was a Funeral Director and Embalmer Intern License.
Other state records show in 2022 and 2023, Morgan was caught removing two bodies from Northwestern Memorial Hospital while using that intern license, but it had been altered. Morgan was fined $10,000.
CBS News Chicago has repeatedly reached out to Clark Morgan and has not heard back.
We also reached out to McCullough Funeral Home, where Morgan was using space. Adrienn McCullough, the owner of the funeral home, said Morgan is not the owner and Helen Mercer was not their client. She said Morgan was "renting space" from her, but she ended their business relationship and "put him out in 2021."
For the last month, the CBS News Chicago Investigators have been exposing Morgan's handling of bodies at the crematory he runs -- Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights.
A whistleblower took photos of bodies from inside a trailer where bodies were being stored. The trailer is located on the property belonging to Heights Crematory, and the photos show deceased people partially wrapped in sheets or clear plastic bags, with their faces and body parts sticking out.
The same photos were also sent to the Illinois State Comptroller's Office, which regulates crematories, prompting them to launch an investigation.
This wasn't the first time the Heights Crematory had violations.
CBS News Chicago obtained records showing repeated warnings by the state for their handling of bodies waiting to be cremated. In July 2024, the crematory was cited after the state found a "cadaver in a broken refrigerator" and "six to seven bodies waiting to be cremated on main floor," saying, "This is a violation."
Morgan was then warned again in October. State regulators wrote "conditions there were unacceptable." But records show the state was willing to give them "one more chance to improve things before we take legal action against the crematory license."
A document goes on to say the facility and trailers needed to be cleaned and bodies needed to be put in the appropriate containers.
After that "one more chance to improve," Heights Crematory got hit again. Two months later in December came another citation for a cremation container violation, and the crematory was given 30 more days to fix the problem.
But just two months after that, in February, a source provided CBS News Chicago with the photos taken in the trailer. That same month, Heights Crematory agreed to temporarily shut down.
Then in March, another whistleblower came forward with video they shot long before those February photos were taken.
CBS News Chicago showed the video to Illinois Comptroller Susana Mendoza, who regulates crematories and has filed to have Heights Crematory shut down permanently.
"I'm so disgusted," Mendoza said. "Like there's a point in this whole experience where it's like, you want to puke."
Heights Crematory was suspended from operating and faces a permanent shutdown after the state filed a four-count complaint against them. The complaint accused the crematory of misrepresentation, and of concealing facts to state inspectors about a trailer where bodies were being stored. The state also accused the crematory of gross malpractice. Mendoza says her office found bodies being stored in ways that violate state law.
Whitney-Bey said she planned to have the crematory Morgan runs cremate her mother after the funeral service. But after seeing how her mother's remains had been treated, she just couldn't allow it.
"I stopped the cremation," she said.
She instead hired a different funeral home to handle her mother's burial. Whitney-Bey said her mom had to be embalmed again because it had not been done correctly.
Trying to get justice has been elusive. It's been nearly five years since her mother's funeral. Now, after seeing the reporting by CBS News Chicago, Whitney-Bey has hope.
"When I seen it on the news, we just was, was like, yeah, they caught," said Whitney-Bey. "They got him like a mouse on a trap, but this time, the mouse is not going to get away."
