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Posted: Wednesday, 19 August 2009 7:37AM
Cemetery owner has convoluted dealings across U.S.
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CHICAGO (STNG) -- The mysterious company at the center of the Burr Oak Cemetery scandal has tried to keep a low profile in the wake of four cemetery employees being charged with a grisly grave-reselling plot. But questions abound about the Arizona-based Perpetua Inc. and its collection of funeral homes and cemeteries across the country.
"We're being consistently told by the owner they have nothing to do with the crime," said William McNary, a member of the task force appointed by Gov. Pat Quinn to investigate the Burr Oak scandal. "If that's the case, they should have nothing to hide."
In fact, Perpetua, Burr Oak and the ghastly scene in Alsip reveal the nature of the cemetery and funeral business today.
Perpetua is part of a trend in changing cemetery ownership, said Josh Slocum, executive director of Funeral Consumers Alliance. In the early 20th century towns or churches owned cemeteries. Now they're likely to be owned by businesses traded on Wall Street. Also, they operate in a field with little or no regulation.
"A lot of times they simply didn't do due diligence," Slocum said.
They bought up cemeteries but didn't go through records of burials and plots.
So while we watched the scene in Alsip in shock, industry advocates weren't surprised.
Perpetua officers won't speak to reporters. A public relations firm hired to field inquiries did not return phone or e-mail requests this week.
Records show Perpetua Inc. was created in 1998, renamed from its previous 3G Corporate Holdings.
It bought Cedar Park Cemetery and Funeral Home near Calumet Park in 1999. Two years later, it acquired Burr Oak, adding to funeral homes in New York, Indiana and Missouri.
The controversy at Burr Oak hasn't been the company's first.
Debora M. Kellom, a former director of the St. Louis-based Wade funeral home owned by Perpetua, admitted to stealing more than $200,000 from a funeral account used by indigent clients paying incrementally, reports and records show.
In Arizona, Perpetua's former president was linked to a pet cemetery alleged to have not buried owners next to their pets after being paid to do so.
Reports show Slivy Edmonds Cotton, who remains listed under Perpetua management, and Portico LLM Enterprises took over the Pet Cemetery of Tucson in 2008.
Portico sued the former owner this summer, alleging fraud and misconduct, including selling headstones that were not provided and breaking into Portico offices to delete files.
At Perpetua, Edmonds Cotton oversaw Cedar Park, 12540 S. Halsted St. She told the Daily Southtown in 2000 she was inspired by Cedar Park's uniqueness and beauty.
Perpetua's now made up of Melvin Bryant as president and chief executive officer along with Felix Villalba and Judy Romlin, listed in Arizona filings as directors.
Bryant and Villalba are with Pacesetters Capital Group, a Texas-based investment firm. Romlin is executive vice president of the Minnesota-based Milestone Growth Fund, another investor.
"What really infuriates consumer advocates ... we still don't have effective federal laws on this," Slocum said. "It is a business. It's not a charity."
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