Funeral Home Director Arrested after Bodies was Found in her Garage

A funeral director has been arrested and charged months after three bodies were found in her garage.



Janet Powell-Dailey

Janet Powell-Dailey, a funeral director has been charge with abuse of a corpse after decomposing bodies were found in her garage.

The 72-year-old Powell-Dailey was taken into custody on Thursday, according to the Philadelphia Police Department. Powell-Dailey ran Powell Funeral Home and owned the adjacent garage in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood in north Philadelphia.

AP reports that police were called to the garage in August after neighbors investigating a foul odor stumbled upon the bodies. One was in a coffin and two others were in cardboard body boxes.

According to a report in The Philadelphia Inquirer, a detective testified at a September hearing over Powell-Dailey's license that the corpses were covered in hundreds of maggots and one was so badly decomposed it was partially liquefied.

Her son, Chris Dailey, told the Inquirer that the bodies wound up in the garage over a "misunderstanding." He defended his mother as a solid businesswoman who stuck it out in the neighborhood when so many businesses moved elsewhere.

The funeral home, which had been in Powell-Dailey's family for decades, had been operating without a license since 2012.