Downard Funeral home investigation continues in Pocatello
POCATELLO, Idaho (KIFI) - Downard Funeral Home has been locked up and shut down since Sept. 3, 2021 when investigators discovered 12 rotting corpses along with the remains of 50 fetuses and close to the same number of unidentified cremated ashes.
The thought of what happened here is really horrifying, and most of us want to know what is happening in the investigation now.
The Pocatello Police detective division says just because we aren’t hearing anything about the case doesn’t mean nothing is happening.
They say there is an absolute mountain of evidence they are trying to wade through.
They have one detective who has been assigned to the case full time since the investigation started plus numerous other officers working several angles of the case.
Currently, they are working on deciphering data from several computers seized from the scene. And of course, that takes time.
When the police searched the funeral home in September, they said they found so many things in a massive state of disorganization they ended up taking out trailers full of evidence. That evidence has been painstakingly cataloged, tested, analyzed and processed. To build a case against the person responsible.
So far, no charges have been filed against funeral home director Lance Peck.
His mortician's license has been revoked and is obviously no longer in business ,but the police are continuing to compile evidence in the case. They say are working toward both misdemeanor and felony charges against him.
Meanwhile, the families who trusted him to take care of their loved ones in some cases don’t even know what happened to their loved ones' remains.
All 12 of the bodies were eventually identified. Some of them were so badly decomposed that DNA had to be used in the identification, but investigators say there are 30 to 40 sets of cremated remains that are unidentified and probably will never be because there is no way to forensically identify them.
So for now we wait for the police to finish their work.
When that’s finished, charges will be filed. We’re just not sure yet what those charges will be.
A few of the families are pursuing civil litigation against Peck.
Most of the loved ones are waiting to see what happens with the criminal case.
