Funeral Home Murders Drug-Induced?

February 6, 2002 1:23 PM

Funeral Home Murders Drug-Induced? A mortician and his assistant found dead by coroner seeking death certificate . Motive unclear. Says local police sergeant: "We have received reports from some agencies in the city that [criminals] might be involved in taking chemicals from funeral homes and using them to soak their marijuana cigarettes or regular cigarettes in, but we have not been able to prove a robbery or anything like that."
posted by brookish (4 comments total)

Smoking formaldahyde(sp?) soaked marijuana is the stupidest way of getting f*cked up ever invented. Trust me, I've met people who've done it. They're not quite drooling on themselves yet but they're getting there.
posted by tankboy at 1:38 PM on February 6, 2002

I don't know. It sounds a little urban-mythic to me. Small town cops faced with a motiveless murder? It's so easy to talk about phantom "druggies".

Besides, can't you buy formaldehyde legally?
posted by jpoulos at 2:02 PM on February 6, 2002

That stuff's nothing compared to what the funeral homes (in collusion with ambulance crews) have been up to around here. See this and this. "It is thought that there may have been hundreds of cases of foul play." I hope I never need an ambulance.
posted by pracowity at 3:13 AM on February 7, 2002

This actually does happen. An old friend of the family owns a funeral home, and got held up once for the embalming chemicals. They embalm in the basement at this particular home, so the guy had to try and make it up the stairs while duct-taped at ankles, wrists, and mouth. He was stuck for hours before anyone found him.
posted by hipstertrash at 12:30 PM on February 7, 2002