Police found two bodies outside the operators’ home in 2024, years before authorities uncovered 56 improperly stored remains in Chicago.
CHICAGO — Police found two bodies in a minivan belonging to funeral business operator Clark Morgan in suburban Evergreen Park in June 2024, an encounter that is receiving new scrutiny after authorities found 56 decomposing remains at a Chicago funeral home run by Morgan and his wife two years later.
The earlier encounter adds to a series of warning signs involving Clark and Johanna Morgan before authorities searched South Chicago Chapel on the Far South Side in August. Police records and newly reported body-camera footage show Evergreen Park officers questioned the couple after finding the bodies in the vehicle outside their home. Officers later learned that Clark Morgan did not have a valid state professional license at the time, but no criminal charges resulted from the episode.
An Evergreen Park officer encountered the double-parked minivan outside the Morgans’ home at about 1:45 a.m. on June 14, 2024, according to records reviewed by news organizations. Officers found two bodies in the rear of the vehicle and determined that the minivan belonged to Clark Morgan. Morgan told officers that he was transporting the bodies from a hospice facility to Heights Crematory, a Chicago Heights business the couple operated.
Morgan presented officers with what appeared to be professional credentials. State regulatory records later showed that his authority to work as a funeral director and embalmer intern had already been revoked. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation has said any credential Morgan presented that night could not have been valid.
State records also show Morgan had previously been disciplined after regulators determined he used an expired license that had been altered to display a different expiration date while transporting bodies from a hospital. He was fined $10,000 and agreed to stop practicing funeral directing in Illinois. Evergreen Park police later determined his license was invalid, but neither police nor Cook County prosecutors filed criminal charges arising from the minivan encounter.
The police inquiry did not end immediately at the roadside. Investigators contacted the Cook County medical examiner’s office, and its chief investigator told police that complaints had previously been made about professional practices at Heights Crematory. Police eventually established the identities of the two people found in the minivan and contacted their relatives.
Concerns about the Morgans’ businesses continued. Heights Crematory was shut down in 2025 after authorities found improperly stored human remains there. The couple later continued operating South Chicago Chapel, a funeral home at 2939 E. 95th St. in Chicago’s South Deering neighborhood.
Authorities entered South Chicago Chapel in August 2026 and found 56 bodies that officials said had been improperly stored and were in various states of decomposition. State regulators suspended Johanna Morgan’s funeral director license after determining that remains had been kept in an unrefrigerated area under conditions that posed a danger to public safety and welfare. Clark Morgan had already lost his funeral director license.
The discovery prompted wider questions about why earlier encounters with the couple did not result in more effective intervention. Records reviewed by several Chicago news organizations show that regulators, local governments and other agencies had received separate warnings involving the Morgans or their businesses over a period of years. Illinois is among a small number of states that do not require routine inspections of funeral homes, and the South Chicago Chapel case has renewed discussion among lawmakers about oversight of the industry.
The city of Chicago has since sued Clark and Johanna Morgan and related business entities over 23 alleged municipal code violations at South Chicago Chapel. The complaint seeks penalties of up to $11,500 for each day violations remain uncorrected and alleges failures involving sanitation, fire protection, construction permits and other building requirements. The allegations in the civil complaint have not been adjudicated.
No criminal charges had been announced against the Morgans in connection with the 56 bodies as of Wednesday. Investigations into the handling of human remains and the history of the businesses remain under scrutiny as authorities, families and elected officials seek answers about whether earlier warning signs could have prompted stronger action.
Author note: Last updated September 2, 2026.