I-Team Investigation: Pitts Mortuary Responds
By Aaron Diamant
An exclusive I-Team investigation exposed a local funeral home snatching up bodies and holding them hostage.
The Wisconsin Department of Regulation and Licensing recently fined Milwaukee's New Pitts Mortuary $3350 for picking up bodies without permission, charging to get them back, and showing up places looking for business. Now, for the first time, the mortuary offers up its side of the story. Pitts' owner still won't answer our questions on camera. Instead, it's their attorney doing the damage control.
"If you interview the thousands of families that are satisfied with their service, you'll find that they're involved in community, involved in the business," said New Berlin attorney Paul Bucher. "They serve the community, and clearly this is not how they do business."
But DRL investigators found Pitts breaking the rules. When her sister died suddenly in 2006, Carol Pleas-Carine couldn't believe how fast representatives from Pitts showed up, she says, flashing business cards.
"It's disrespectful to think that you could prey upon somebody at their time of grieving and mourning just to get business. That's sick," cried Carnie.
In 2004, DRL documents show another woman told investigators, "we have now given Pitts Mortuary the title, 'The Body Snatcher.'" Investigators found Pitts picked up her ex-husbands body without her permission, then tried to charge her $600 to get it back.
"Those were mistakes that were made," Bucher explained. "New Pitts Mortuary stepped up to the plate and said, 'yeah, they probably didn't exactly happen that way, but ultimately what happened there should not have occurred. We apologize; we're paying the forfeiture and moving on.'"
But not before making some big changes.
"I'm confident that the policies and procedures that I've seen in place at Pitts are designed that what happened in '04 and '06 will not happen again," Bucher said.
However, as you saw Tuesday night, a Milwaukee Medical Examiner's Office investigator complained about Pitts' business practices just a few weeks ago. You'll hear what Pitts' lawyer has to say about all that Wednesday night on Live at 10.
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