A Wrightsville funeral director was arrested Monday and charged with mishandling several deceased persons' remains.
That's according to Scott Whitley, special agent in charge of the GBI's Eastman office.
He said a Johnson County family last year gave their mother's remains to John Hall Brantley's Brantley Davis Funeral Home to be cremated.
Brantley later provided the family with an urn that he said contained her remains, Whitley said. A Wrightsville police incident report says the family paid Brantley $890 for the cremation.
In February, they buried what they thought were her remains. But in May, a crematory contacted the woman's family and asked if they planned to pick up her remains.
Whitley said Brantley outsourced his cremations to several locations, but investigators don't believe those crematories did anything wrong.
The family complained to the Wrightsville police, which asked the GBI to investigate.
When investigators dug up the woman's urn, they found it didn't contain her remains, Whitley said.
He said they're not sure if the urn contained another person's remains or some other substance or a mixture. It's been sent to a medical examiner for analysis.
Whitley said the GBI and the Wrightsville police searched the funeral home Friday and collected records and other evidence.
He says they found at least three other sets of remains that were not properly labeled.
Whitley says Brantley is charged with one count of theft by taking, for billing the family for their mother's burial.
He's also charged with four counts of improperly labeling remains.
Those are all misdemeanors.
He said they're still investigating to learn if other remains were mishandled.
According to the funeral home's website, Brantley, age 63, has been in the funeral business for more than 25 years. He's also certified for law-enforcement and crime-scene investigation and is a state-certified Licensed Criminal Hypnotist.
Brantley did not return our phone call.
