‘They wouldn’t go in the freezers’: Funeral home director gave fake ashes to thousands of grieving pet owners, dumped actual carcasses in landfill, AG says

A Pennsylvania ceremonial location manager allegedly bilked immoderate 6,500 radical retired of much than $650,000 by promising to cremate their cats and dogs, but alternatively dumping the carnal carcasses successful a landfill and giving the favored owners fake ashes.

Patrick Vereb, 70, is charged with respective felony counts, including theft by deception, receiving stolen spot and deceptive concern practices, Attorney General Dave Sunday announced. Vereb, the proprietor of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial successful the Pittsburgh area, told favored owners helium would cremate their canine oregon feline and instrumentality the ashes successful an urn for a fee. But alternatively of really cremating the animals, helium would dump the carcasses successful a landfill and springiness the ashes of an chartless carnal to the customers, Sunday said.

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“From 2021 and 2024, Mr. Vereb neglected his work of attraction by deliberately and repeatedly betraying his customers who wanted a dignified work for their beloved canine oregon cat,” Sunday said successful a prerecorded video.

Sunday noted that the customers paid Vereb a “significant magnitude of money” for those services. The lawsuit is truthful extended that the AG’s bureau created a website and email code to update victims connected the presumption of their cases.

“As a favored proprietor myself, I can’t ideate the heartbreak successful learning that you were affected by a transgression similar this,” Sunday stated, adding that helium recovered the lawsuit “disturbing.”

According to local CBS affiliate KDKA, the lawsuit broke unfastened acknowledgment to an intern-turned-whistleblower. Tiffany Mantzouridis earned an internship astatine the ceremonial location aft graduating from mortuary schoolhouse successful February 2024. In summation to helping with quality funerals, she told the TV presumption Verb besides had her grip the cremations for the dogs and cats.

However, Mantzouridis noticed thing was off.

“He would get pets in, and they wouldn’t spell successful the freezers,” she said, adding that it is important to frost the carcasses to sphere them.

She besides said the spreadsheet that kept way of the cremations was inaccurate.

“And past erstwhile I pulled the spreadsheet up, I noticed that determination was a precise alarming magnitude of pets that didn’t person crematory numbers,” she said.

Mantzouridis concluded, “There was thing precise atrocious going on.” She claimed Vereb would nonstop the bigger pets to the crematory but not the smaller ones. He would past allegedly premix the ashes each unneurotic and springiness them to the owners arsenic if it were lone their pet.

Vereb was taken into custody Monday and released connected his ain recognizance. His adjacent tribunal day is scheduled for May 9.

According to the ceremonial home’s website, Vereb became a licensed ceremonial manager astatine the property of 21. He boasts “there are implicit 20,000 pet’s portraits” connected PetMemorialPittsburgh.com.