Wednesday afternoon, law enforcement officers and agents searched the wooded area behind Johnson Funeral & Cremation Services as a part of the ongoing investigation into the funeral home’s operations. Last month, owner and operator Chris Johnson was arrested and charged with 17 counts of abusing a dead body after 18 decomposing bodies were found inside the funeral home when the property owner served Johnson with an eviction notice.
Authorities stated that searching the woods was something investigators needed to do to make sure they hadn’t missed anything. During the investigation, officers hadn’t uncovered anything pointing them to the wooded area behind the funeral home. It was just a box that needed checking off, said investigators. They did not find anything during the search.
Tuesday morning, Waycross Judicial Circuit District Attorney Marilyn Bennett filed a motion in Superior Court seeking a continuance for Johnson’s bond hearing, which is scheduled for Tuesday, November 19, 2024. Johnson has been in jail since his arrest. He was initially incarcerated at the Coffee County Jail but he was later moved to the Tift County Jail for his safety. He has since been moved again, this time to an undisclosed facility.
Bennett asked for the bond hearing to be continued until January 8, 2025. The four-page filing states that victims are entitled to be present “at all stages of prosecution,” including bond hearings. However, not all of the bodies have been identified. They are currently at the GBI’s Medical Examiner’s Office where MEs are working to identify each one. As such, no one knows exactly how many victims there are and who the victims are.
The filing states “Due to the unique nature of this case, many of the surviving victims in this case may not yet know they are a victim. Generally, the State notifies crime victims via letter or phone call of an upcoming bond hearing. However, the victims usually are already aware that they are a victim at that time. In this case, the warrants were taken for Johnson’s arrest prior to identification because the condition the deceased bodies were in at the time of discovery. In this situation, the State anticipates that some of the victims it will need to notify have already received cremation remains from Johnson believing what was received was their loved one. In other situations, the State anticipates Johnson assisted the family with a funeral and burial services and they believe their loved one was properly embalmed and buried. While others may have been waiting to receive cremation remains from Johnson that he promised families to deliver.”
The filing continues: “Out of respect for the impacted families, and in keeping with treating survivors with the utmost dignity, the State does not feel that it can deliver this kind of notice through its general practice, but will need time to properly relay this shocking and traumatic information in a more reverent manner, such as in-person notification by the GBI, coroner’s office, and/or the District Attorney’s Office.”
The filing concludes by stating that the date of January 8, 2025, should give investigators ample time to identify the bodies and notify next of kin appropriately and respectfully.
If the continuance is granted, Johnson will, of course, remain incarcerated until the hearing is held early next year.