Report: Two bodies found decomposing while in custody of Whatcom County Medical Examiner

WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — Whatcom County leaders say they’re looking for a new medical examiner after at least two bodies were found improperly stored and decomposing while in the custody of the County’s Medical Examiner in May.

The findings were released in a report dated July 26 by the Bundy Law Group. Whatcom County Executive Satpal Singh Sidhu’s office says they’re moving on from Dr. Allison Hunt as medical examiner because of “a difference in perspectives on the findings of the report and potential corrective actions.”

Hunt herself is contracted for medical examiner services in the county.

The County’s Medical Center, which includes the morgue, has been undergoing renovations so Hunt and the County leased space from Moles Farwell Tributes & Cremations, a funeral home in Bellingham, one of several owned by John Moles.

The situation began on Friday, May 10th when staff with the ME’s office and Moles were trying to determine where to store a body that had just undergone autopsy. Staff told the investigator the normal process was for a body to be brought to Moles’ Green Acres Funeral Home to be stored in a cooler. According to the report, the body was never taken and was sitting in a garage over the “hot” weekend.

The funeral home that was to receive the body had not received pick-up instructions until May 13, setting up the pick-up for May 14, according to interviews in the investigation. According to the report, it was one of two bodies left outside of a cooler and in the garage that weekend.

KIRO 7 News spoke to the body transport specialist over the phone, who described smelling an odor that smelled like something decomposing as soon as he got out of the van before he ever entered the garage at Moles Farewell Tributes. Once he entered the garage, he described five bodies in bags “spread out like fingers on a hand.” He said he and a coworker, Dennis Lytle discovered the decomposing body as they opened it up at another funeral home where they worked. This employee is one of several body transport specialists KIRO 7 spoke to.

“Usually you would pull the body out of the cooler and put them on a gurney and take it to the funeral home,” said Dan, another transport specialist.

The report finds that the two bodies were left in the garage on May 10th, but Dan, the aforementioned transport specialist, and another worker in a similar role describe seeing multiple bodies in the garage on different occasions. Dan believes some were left for several days because he would read the name tags during pickups that were days apart.

“When I would come in to do the removals to take to another funeral home, there would be anywhere between one to five or six bodies in the garage, and then a few days later, I would come back and the same deceased are on the ground a few days later,” Dan recalled.

Dan recalls Hunt saying they had to address the smell that he noticed outside the garage as well. The investigation could not substantiate more than two bodies being left in the garage.

Interviews in the investigation note employees tried to buy ice for the bodies that were in the garage before the weekend.

“I find that the evidence shows [an employee] knew what happened: the two bodies were left out with the hope they would make it through the weekend,” the report stated.

Hunt did not return the several calls or emails from KIRO 7 seeking comment Wednesday. In her interview with the investigator, she notes that they ‘Never leave [any bodies} out,’ that ‘Moles is in charge of storage, they should have checked,’ and ‘the contract controls transport.’ Hunt said she often saw Moles had bodies in the garage and that she had no personal knowledge of how or why the bodies were left in the garage over that May weekend.

“I find the Medical Examiner’s office did not keep any record of where the bodies were stored after intake and before release,” the investigative report says. That matches Dan’s experience during pickups.

“Sometimes they didn’t know where the deceased was so they would have to call me back and let me know where the deceased was,” Dan said.

Records obtained by KIRO 7 from the Department of Licensing show Moles facilities were not licensed through the state at the time of the May incident. The Moles Farewell Tributes site’s license expired on March 31 and was renewed on July 17, 2024. The license for the Green Acres site expired on January 31, 2024, and was also renewed on July 17, 2024.

The report notes “Mr. Moles had very little, if any, involvement” in the transportation aspect of his business. When asked for comment, Moles’ attorney said, “We agree with the county investigation that did not find Moles Farewell Tributes was at fault and appreciate the proper steps Whatcom County has taken to protect families from such an occurrence in the future.”

Washington State Code 308-48-030 states funeral homes and agencies “must provide refrigerated holding of human remains.” Both the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office and Prosecuting Attorney’s office say there was no evidence to warrant charges. The Sheriff’s Office says “it is not up to the WCSO to enforce” state code.

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