A Texas man might have performed up to a dozen unlicensed embalmings and funerals in the Chicago area, authorities said.
Adam Casey, 27, was charged this week with forgery and funeral directing without a license in one of those cases, officials said.
Cook County Judge Darron Bowden set bail Thursday at $10,000 for Casey.
According to the website for Casey’s services, he lists funerals performed since 2015, many of which are in the south suburbs and on the South Side of Chicago.
Casey is not licensed to perform embalming or funeral services in Illinois, Cook County prosecutors said. He does hold an apprentice’s license in Texas, but that is not transferable to Illinois, they said.
Prosecutors said Casey allegedly used the name and license number of a licensed funeral director to fill out a death certificate in Markham for a woman who died on July 9.
“There are (other funeral services) that he is suspected to have performed, and those are being investigated,” said Sophia Ansari, of the Cook County sheriff’s office.
The family of the woman who died July 9 and the person whose license number Casey allegedly used contacted Cook County sheriff’s police, who arrested Casey during a funeral at the Mt. Glenwood Cemetery in Glenwood, prosecutors said.
On July 9, Casey allegedly offered his services to the family of the deceased, recovered the body and performed the embalming, prosecutors said.
On July 13, Casey allegedly attempted to fill out a death certificate for the woman at the Cook County Clerk’s office in Markham, prosecutors said. The licensed funeral director told authorities she did not give him permission to use her name.
Police are investigating the other funerals Casey allegedly performed in 2015 and 2016, Ansari said. Those families have not yet been contacted.
Casey has at least one prior conviction, for retail theft, and has an outstanding warrant for theft from the state of Georgia, prosecutors said.
He returns to court Jan. 25.
Nick Swedberg is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.