The director of the South Deering funeral home where 56 bodies were found rotting in “deplorable conditions” in August has denied allegations brought against her by the state.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Johanna Morgan’s funeral director and embalmer license Aug. 5, after investigators discovered bodies in various stages of decomposition at South Chicago Chapel, owned by her husband, Clark Morgan, at 2939 E. 95th St.
The state accused the Evergreen Park couple of incompetent and untrustworthy funeral practices, unprofessional conduct and violating state regulations.
On Monday, Johanna Morgan denied all of the allegations against her, except for acknowledging that she was the sole funeral director and embalmer at South Chicago Chapel.
State regulators, attorneys for the state and for Johanna Morgan held settlement negotiations last month to permanently revoke her license over the grisly funeral home discovery. A formal hearing is scheduled for later this fall.
The allegations involving South Chicago Chapel are not the first disciplinary action the Morgans have faced.
Last month, a south suburban cremation storefront business called Planet Green Cremations — owned by the Morgans — was searched as part of a “follow-up” investigation by Chicago police.
Chicago police officers and Area 2 detectives executed a search warrant at the business at 319 E. Glenwood Lansing Road, which contracted cremation services for families.
Chicago police did not say what was found inside the business, but officers were seen carrying out several boxes.
In June 2025 they faced disturbingly similar allegations to the South Chicago Chapel situation at their now-shuttered crematory in Chicago Heights, where investigators from the Illinois comptroller’s office found 44 bodies piled up, along with hundreds of sets of mishandled cremated remains.
The Morgans agreed to shut down Heights Crematory but admitted no wrongdoing under their 2025 agreement with the comptroller’s office.
After shutting down the Chicago Heights business, the comptroller’s office said it “urged” the IDFPR to revoke Johanna Morgan’s funeral director’s license. The office also said it turned its findings over to law enforcement “in hopes of criminal charges being filed against the Morgans.”
That case prompted state investigators to visit the Morgans’ South Chicago Chapel in October 2025, though at that time, they found “no serious concerns pertaining to the handling or storing of remains,” according to a timeline provided by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
The couple obtained their respective licenses in the late 1990s, and each faced their first license suspension in 2017 for failing to file state income taxes.
That year, Johanna Morgan was reprimanded and fined $1,500 for transporting “a decedent across state lines for burial prior to obtaining required permits,” records show. She was also fined $5,000 in 2024 for failing to complete and file three death records “in a timely manner” in 2020.
The state has filed four tax liens against the couple’s south suburban home, where Evergreen Park police found two bodies inside a double-parked minivan during a bizarre encounter in June 2024.
Clark Morgan told officers he had picked up the remains from a hospice center and stopped to use the bathroom while en route to the couple’s crematory. Cook County prosecutors later advised police that the incident did not violate state law.
Illinois State Police said they are still conducting a criminal investigation into the Chicago Heights case and assisting Chicago police with the investigation of South Chicago Chapel.