SOUTH SALT LAKE, UT (KUTV/CNN) - There are growing allegations against a mortuary recently shut down by the state.
Former employee Tony Gerulat, who worked at Carver Mortuary from 2015 to 2016, said it was sometimes impossible to match bodies and IDs.
He also said the gold and silver fillings from the mouths of cremated bodies were tossed into a container and sold - about 20 pounds' worth, he estimated. The money, Gerulat said, would go into the Carver Mortuary coffers.
State licensing officials suspended Carver Mortuary's license to operate in an emergency meeting on Thursday, accusing the business of mixing ashes, unsanitary conditions and bad recordkeeping.
He said even though he wasn't licensed and seldom supervised, he did just about everything at the mortuary.
"I went ahead and did cremations," Gerulat said, "up to like 3 to 500 maybe."
He said he wasn't alone. Other employees continued working at Carver even though in some cases their licenses had been stripped from them.
"There's were people there when they shouldn't have. They're denied a license, suspended license and suspended internship," Gerulat said.
He said owner Tanner Carver, who is a licensed funeral director, would have those workers embalm bodies and fill out the state-mandated embalming logs using his name.
On Friday, a lawyer for the mortuary responded to the state finding of "commingling ashes" by saying the company is "highly confident … any remains received by family members were properly segregated and identified."
Copyright 2017 KUTV via CNN. All rights reserved. Raycom News Network contributed to this report.
