Medical examiner ID's bodies found decomposing in East Side funeral home

Gregory Royal Pratt, Chicago Tribune on Oct 13, 2026

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CHICAGO — The Cook County medical examiner’s office has identified all 55 people whose remains were found decomposing inside a Southeast Side funeral home this summer, authorities told the Chicago Tribune.

Officials previously indicated there were 56 remains found at South Chicago Chapel, but it was actually 55, said Natalia Derevyanny, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office.

Among the bodies reported found at South Chicago Chapel was a bag of organs that officials considered its own entity until DNA testing proved it was the remains from another body, she said.

The completed identification of the remains at the funeral home is the latest development in a story that generated international headlines after the Tribune first reported on the grim discovery.

A state regulator and police arrived at South Chicago Chapel early in the afternoon on Aug. 6, while a funeral was underway.

What they found shocked the city.

According to police sources, some bodies were laid in plastic bags on gurneys while others were on shelves alongside miscellaneous equipment like spray cans and cardboard boxes. Sinks were full of other cans and rags, sources said. Some of the corpses were not in bags and only haphazardly covered. Some of them had limbs that had apparently been severed.

A Tribune investigation found regulatory shortcomings and a lax oversight system that allowed the operators of the facility to continue working in the death care industry despite previous run-ins with state officials.

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