Alan R. Smith, Jr.
Hamilton County Sheriff's Office
(Cincinnati, Oh.) - A Harrison man is accused of stealing 20 urns from his former employer, sometimes dumping out the human ashes inside.
Alan R. Smith, Jr. was fired last month from the Hillside Chapel and Cincinnati Cremation Company in Cincinnati, the Enquirer reports.
Investigators allege after his firing, he took the bronze urns valued at $1,200 a piece, an air conditioning unit, and copper wiring. The stolen items were then sold as scrap.
Smith is charged with theft, vandalism and desecration. More charges could be filed against him soon, investigators said.
The dumped ashes - those of people who died in the 1960s and 1970s - were contained in bags marked for identification. They will be returned to new urns.
Hillside Chapel is working to notify the families whose loved ones remains were disturbed.
Smith will be arraigned in Hamilton County Municipal Court at 9:00 a.m. Wednesday.
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