DA Seeks Help Finding Families of 3 People Found in Funeral Director’s Storage Unit
The Suffolk County District Attorney is seeking the public’s help in identifying the next of kin for three people whose decomposing bodies were found in a Weymouth storage unit rented by a former Boston funeral director in July.
All 12 of the bodies found in the storage facility have now been identified, and next of kin have been located for nine of them. Disturbingly, eight of those nine families received the cremated remains of someone other than their loved one, according to the DA. It’s unknown just whose remains they received. Two families already scattered the ashes they received; the other six sets of ashes were recovered by authorities.
The individuals whose families still need to be located are:
• William J. McDougall, 67, who was born in Washington state and was a resident of the St. Joseph Nursing Center in Dorchester when he died in 2009.
• Maggie Moore, 65, who was born in Alabama and was a resident of the Annemark Nursing Home in Revere when she died in 2005.
• Sadie Waddy, 90, who was born in Virginia and was a resident at the Bay Pointe Rehab in Brockton when she died in 2009.
Authorities discovered the 12 bodies following an investigation into Joseph V. O’Donnell, who is accused of stealing nearly $150,000 from 31 clients who pre-paid for funerals at his funeral home on Neponset Avenue. O’Donnell allegedly told investigators that the money was gone.
O’Donnell also allegedly performed 201 illegal funerals between 2008, when his professional license expired, and 2013, when the funeral home was foreclosed on.
He is currently being held on $50,000 bail and faces 278 charges, including returning a false death certificate, embezzlement, larceny, forgery, improper disposal of human remains, and 201 counts of acting as a funeral director without a license.
O’Donnell, who has actually been in court custody since April 10, when he was arraigned on larceny charges, is due back in court December 9.
Anyone with information should contact civilian investigator Brian Bukuras of the DA’s Special Prosecutions Unit at (617) 619-4144.
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