Funeral Director's License Pulled After Family Given 2 Sets Of Remains

By STEPHEN THOMPSONand ROD CHALLENGER The Tampa Tribune

Published: Oct 17, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - A funeral director's license has been suspended after the family of a dead man received two sets of cremated remains from the director's funeral home, state officials said.

The six-month suspension, along with other disciplinary measures, was handed down last week during a meeting of the board of the state Division of Funeral, Cemetery & Consumer Services, which falls under Florida's chief financial officer.

They released a report of their investigation Tuesday.

Leroy Sims Jr., 74, was director of Serenity Memorial Funeral Home and Cremation Services, which used to operate from 3301 Fifth Ave. S. in St. Petersburg but no longer is in business, state officials said. Serenity's license expired in November.

In addition to the six-month suspension of his funeral director and embalmer license, Sims was ordered to serve two years of probation after the suspension, pay an administrative fine of $3,500 and pay more than $2,800 in restitution. He also will be reprimanded formally.

The punishment came after an investigation into the remains of Nathaniel Walters, who died Nov. 8, 2005, and whose funeral was handled by Serenity. Walter's oldest child, Andra, asked Serenity to cremate his father's remains, but he didn't receive any for a while because, he said last year, he was told the crematory had a three-month backlog of cremations.

At first, Andra Walters said in a March 9, 2006, interview, he was told his father was cremated at Palm State Crematory in Clearwater; by about this time Serenity had gone out of business.

The owner of Palm State eventually gave him one set of cremated remains and a certificate saying they were those of his father, he said. Then Serenity delivered another set of remains to Andra Walters' uncle. A certificate states that those remains came from Bay to Bay Crematory in Tampa and that they, too, belonged to Nathaniel Walters.

The remains from the Bay to Bay Crematory actually were those of Howard Simmons, according to an investigative report into the matter, which was released Tuesday. The owner of Serenity, Leon Thomas, and Sims had brought Simmons' body there to be cremated. However, Thomas gave Simmons' remains to Andra Walters' uncle, Tim, as if they were those of Nathaniel Walters, the report says. Andra Walters told News Channel 8: "He just continually said that Palm State never had my dad's body, that he took my dad to Bay to Bay, and he guaranteed that's where he had taken my dad's body, and still we couldn't come up with the reason - Why do I have two boxes here labeled Nathaniel Walters?"

Thurman Lowe, a supervisor for the state's Division of Funeral, Cemetery & Consumer Services, said the remains were the sole responsibility of Sims and Serenity Memorial Funeral Home.

"As a result of our investigation, it was determined that proper procedures were not in place for the identification of human remains, relative to the cremation process," Lowe said.

Tamara Dudley, an attorney for the Walters family, said the family considered Sims' punishment lenient; they think the suspension should have been for a longer time.

A crucial mystery still remains: "They still don't know which set of cremains belong to their father and that's the most hurtful thing at this point," Dudley said.

Sims now lives in Manatee County. His wife is operating a funeral home there.

Reporter Stephen Thompson can be reached at (727) 451-2336 or spthompson@tampatrib.com. Rod Challenger can be reached at (727) 536-8443 or rchallenger@ wfla.com.