Chris Johnson, the owner of Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services who was arrested on Sunday, October 27, 2024, after authorities discovered 18 decomposing bodies in the funeral home while serving an eviction notice, has been transferred to the Tift County Jail for safety reasons. Johnson was transferred to Tift County last week.
Johnson was being evicted from the funeral home location on Highway 441 South after falling behind on his rent. For several months, he had been working on a new location for the funeral home in downtown Douglas but he had also fallen behind on the rent for that building.
When the eviction notice was served on October 26, 18 decomposing bodies were found inside, along with a dog and a cat. Johnson was arrested a day later and charged with 17 counts of abusing a dead body. One of the bodies had not been in the funeral home long enough to be considered abused.
In the nine days since Johnson’s arrest, families who used Johnson have expressed concern about their loved ones’ cremains they have received. In at least a few situations, the ashes families have received do not belong to their loved ones. There are also questions as to exactly what is contained in other urns and boxes families have received. There are suspicions that what is contained in the urns may not actually be human cremains at all.
Agents from the Geogia Bureau of Investigation and officers from the Coffee County Sheriff’s Office are working answer these questions and identify the bodies that were found in the funeral home. According to Johnson’s web site, he has conducted burials or cremations for 36 individuals this year, the most recent being Floyd Tanner on October 4. The 18 bodies found inside the funeral home represent exactly half of the funerals Johnson has handled in 2024.
Johnson had also been inspected by the Secretary of State’s Office in July and given a passing score despite not being in compliance. Johnson had let his funeral director, embalming, and establishment licenses expire. He eventually renewed all but his establishment license, which had remained expired until the time of his arrest. Funeral homes can be fined for $100-$500 per day for operating with an expired establishment license, meaning by the time Johnson was arrested, he would have accrued fines between $11,800 and $59,000. However, it does not appear that inspectors levied any fines against him for non-compliance.
A number of complaints had also been made to the Secretary of State’s Office this year that appear to have gone uninvestigated.
DouglasNow has reached out to the Secretary of State’s Office on two separate occasions seeking information regarding the July inspection and the complaints but has yet to receive a response.
In the meantime, Johnson is incarcerated in the Tift County Jail and the GBI and local authorities continue to investigate this shocking incident. Johnson has a bond hearing set for later this month. The law firm of Walters & Pujadas & Walker PC in Ocilla is representing Johnson.
Note: Not long after this story was posted, the Tift County Jail roster showed that Johnson had been released. However, he remains in custody and in the care of the Tift County Jail though he may not necessarily be in the Tift County Jail.