by WKRC
Sun, February 4th 2024 at 6:48 PM
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It appears he stole people’s money, doled out fake cremains, and abandoned a funeral home. We will aggressively pursue this former funeral home director and hold him accountable to the families he’s wronged.”
Originally, the investigation began after Patronis’ office received a general complaint about the funeral home. His office is in charge of overseeing funeral homes and mortuaries to ensure they’re held to the highest standards of “respect and dignity” when caring for the remains of the deceased.
Immediately after arriving at the funeral home police began treating it as an official crime scene. Then, an arrest warrant for Graham was issued shortly after.
Pauline Durden had passed away six months ago. Graham then gave her family what was supposed to be ashes, but state investigators contacted her family last week to say that the ashes weren’t hers and that her body was actually still in the mortuary.
Further examinations were conducted on the “ashes” which turned out to not be human ashes at all.
Durden’s granddaughter, Johnesha Kemp, said that Graham was unprofessional in their dealings and would always give the family a “runaround.” She said she’s happy that he has since been arrested.
“It gave us a little bit of closure knowing that we now have my grandma. The person who did this horrendous act is now behind bars and the process is getting moved and we can finally let it go and let her rest in peace,” said Kemp.
Graham is now being held at the Orange County Jail where he awaits extradition back to Jacksonville.
Marion Graham Mortuaries was opened by Graham’s father in 1984 and has operated in the Jacksonville area since then.
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