Fort Worth

Box of Possible Ashes Found at Former Fort Worth Mortuary

Additional charges not expected to be filed, police say

Another box containing what appeared to be ashes was discovered at the building that once housed the Johnson Family Mortuary in Fort Worth.

A representative for the property owners of the former mortuary said if they are human they'll be extremely difficult to identify. By turning them over to the Tarrant County medical examiner for identification, the property owners hope they can help bring another family closure.

Rick, who didn't want to be identified by his last name, said this isn't the first time they have called Fort Worth police back to the building off Handley Drive.

"That's actually the second time we've had Fort Worth PD out," Rick said. "We actually, a couple days later, when we had the hazmat cleaning crew in, they found — and we confirmed the next day — there were additional ashes in several other containers. Some of them were labeled and marked accordingly. Some of them were not, and all of those were immediately picked up by Fort Worth PD”

Rick said a cleaning crew made the latest discovery Tuesday evening when they found a black box tucked away on a bottom shelf inside a room.

"Inside the box was a plastic bag. When you pull out the plastic, you could see the ashes were inside the bag," Rick said.

He said there was no identification on the box.

The Johnsons' attorney, Michael J. Todd, said he was shocked to learn investigators overlooked anything that would implicate wrongdoing after they searching the building extensively. He also pointed out the acrimonious relationship the Johnsons had with their landlords, who turned the box over to police Wednesday morning.

Rick said the Johnsons have now been legally evicted for failure to pay rent.

Rick said the property owners are ready to look forward not backward and they are working to prepare the property to be leased out to another tenant. He said the Johnsons sent movers to the building last week to clean out everything they wanted.

The next step is to rip out the carpet and deep-clean the property.

Still, it's hard to erase the memory of what police said happened inside the mortuary. On July 15, eight bodies in various stages of decay were discovered inside the Johnson Family Mortuary.

Rick was there when the discovery was made.

"As soon as we opened the front door, I've described it to friends and family as basically getting hit in the face by Mike Tyson," Rick said. "It's just that you'll never forget that smell, and I knew at the point exactly what the smell was and what we were going to find. I just didn't know it was going to be to that many bodies that we were going to find."

Rick wishes more could be done. The Johnsons have lost their license to operate, and Dondre Johnson and his wife, Rachel Hardy Johnson, each face charges for misdemeanor abuse of a corpse.

"I was very angry with the Johnsons and the way that they had treated these people," Rick said.

"I'm disappointed in our justice system. My understanding is this is the worst case law for this type of crime. Only being charged with misdemeanors when they are just letting people decay and rot is beyond me," Rick added. "So, I hope that there a state representative or senator that wants to take this under his wing and get this law to where it's a felony law."

NBC 5 spoke with one of the property owners off camera Wednesday, and he said the building will soon be ready to lease and that another funeral home is one of several options being considered.

Police said they do not anticipate additional charges even if the ashes found turn out to be human.

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