A judge on Thursday heard about what city inspectors found inside a funeral chapel in Chicago's South Deering community.
In August, authorities removed the decomposing remains of 55 people from the South Chicago Chapel, 2939 E. 95th St. Families still want to know how their loved ones were treated and why.
The city said this past Friday, electrical, carpentry, plumbing and demolition inspectors took part in a comprehensive examination of the South Chicago Chapel building. The city said the South Chicago Chapel building is vacant.
The inspection follows a lawsuit from the city accusing the funeral home's owners of 23 building code violations. The lawsuit and inspection in turn came after authorities found 55 bodies in various states of decomposition inside the funeral home in August.
At the hearing Thursday before Cook County civil court Judge Federico Rodriguez, city Assistant Corporation Counsel Megan Stiarwalt said the Department of Buildings inspector discovered new plumbing and electrical violations during the inspection. City attorneys are planning to file an amended complaint to include the new violations.
Meanwhile, an order remains in place that the South Chicago Chapel building not be leased, used or occupied, and the city asked in court for an order requiring notification before anyone tries to access the property. The city wants a representative present if someone needs to access the property.
The contract seller of the property also wants to be notified if anyone goes into the building.
Attorney Judy Frydland, a former Chiago Department of Buildings commissioner and now lienholder of record for the South Chicago Chapel, said she wants to make sure the heat stays on so the popes don't freeze and cause further deterioration of the building.
An inspector said he had not had opportunity to check on the heat. He said there are at least two gas furnaces in the building, and he has not gotten to check if they are operating.
When the bodies were removed, state regulators said some of the corpses were kept in unrefrigerated areas where rodents and maggots were present.
South Chicago Chapel funeral director Johanna Morgan's license was suspended after investigators made the discovery.
It took the Cook County Medical Examiner's office about two months to identify all 55 people whose bodies were removed.
Johanna Morgan's husband, Clark Morgan, previously was caught improperly handling bodies at the Heights Crematory in south suburban Chicago Heights in early 2025.
The CBS News Chicago investigators found Clark Morgan altered the expiration date on his license after it expired in 2019. After he was fined $10,000, he continued using the forged license despite repeated complaints.
After the discovery involving the crematory, the Illinois State Comptroller's office, which regulates crematoriums, tried over and over and over again to get the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which regulates funeral homes, to suspend Johanna's funeral director license.
Meanwhile, just this week, a new family exclusively shared videos of a loved one's body with the CBS News Chicago Investigators, saying the mishandling and mistreatment of his remains was a missed warning sign about South Chicago Chapel. The body of 76-year-old Ronald Tyler was already decomposing by the time his daughter Terri found out where he was being stored.
Another hearing is set for Feb. 4.
