The Gadsden Times is reporting the arrest of Harold Watson, Sr., owner of Watson and Sons Funeral Home, for felony abuse of a corpse.

Edna Kathleen Woods died of natural causes in 2007, and her family entrusted her care to Watson and Sons Funeral Home.

Watson claims the family never paid him for her services, then he lost contact with the family. After storing her remains at the funeral home for at least a year, Watson allegedly put the body in a shipping container, loaded the container in the hearse, and drove the hearse to property he owns some two miles from the funeral home. There, he allegedly parked the vehicle outside a building, and removed the battery to prevent theft of the vehicle.

Watson is claiming the family wanted their relative cremated, but never paid for the service. A death certificate states that she was cremated a week after she died, however.

More from the Gadsden News, and the Associated Press.

About a year ago, the Central Ohio funeral industry was shaken by a pair of fraud and theft investigations that closed one funeral home, and sent two funeral directors to prison.

Now it’s spread to Canada, apparently.

I supposed that’s not correct. It’s not a disease that can be spread. It’s just…what? Bad morals? Poor upbringing? That’s not a fair thing to say, as we don’t know anything about the parenting involved.

And the issue of theft and fraud in the funeral industry isn’t uncommon, unfortunately. An Alabama funeral director was recently arrested as well.

What can be done to prevent such crimes? Probably not much, sadly. The funds involved are typically held in trust by the funeral home, and the customers are relying on the integrity of the funeral home and its staff. Short of eliminating the trust option from pre-paid funeral contracts, I’m not certain anything can be done.