My good friend's sister is engaged to a gentleman who parents owned a funeral home some years back. The funeral home has since been torn down.  The gentleman she is engaged to gave my friend an urn full of cremated ashes as a Christmas gift. She has these cremated ashes and doesn't know any next of kin. I am assuming they were unclaimed some years back when the funeral home closed and he ended up with them.  Is there any legality in him passing these ashes around? What does she do with them?? They are human remains and need to be put to rest!!

The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors staff has some new faces, and in contrast to most rookies, these newcomers are playing pivotal roles in developing examination procedures for the state’s preneed funeral sellers. The Division of Professional Registration chose personnel with prior auditing experience, but as these ‘rookies’ are learning, there is little in the way of guidelines for the examination of trust funded preneed. Missouri’s preneed heritage only makes their task more difficult.

Ostensibly, airtight caskets preserve a body longer than less expensive, unsealed caskets. However, consumer groups, such as the Funeral Consumers Alliance of Central Ohio, say the only significant effects of sealed caskets are the anerobic bacteria they create and the boost they give to the funeral industry's bottom line.

[The] Kansas Secretary of State sought legislation in 2010 for the authority to seek individual preneed data from its cemeteries selling preneed ..... As opposed to the paper report of individual contracts, the preneed database provides the regulator more flexibility in reviewing information and creating contract listings from which to begin audits and examinations at the funeral home or cemetery.