cremation

The Return to Nature funeral home is marked off with police tape on Oct. 6 in Penrose, Colo.

Colorado funeral home owners arrested following the discovery of 190 decaying bodies

1:50pm November 08, 2023

by Emily Olson

Police searched the Return to Nature funeral home after receiving reports of an "abhorrent smell." The owners are now facing charges of theft, forgery, money laundering and the abuse of a corpse.

A field hospital tent for suspected COVID-19 patient triage was set up outside the emergency department of Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles, California. A surge in deaths has prompted the county to lift environmental limits on the

National

Cremation Limits Lifted In LA Due To 'Backlog' As COVID-19 Deaths Skyrocket

2:30pm January 19, 2021

by Rachel Treisman

Air quality limits on cremations are temporarily suspended in Los Angeles because of increased demand due to COVID-19. Officials say the death rate is now more than double that of pre-pandemic years.

Zhang Hai stands on a bridge where he took his father out for a walk only about four months earlier. His father died of the novel coronavirus on Feb. 1. "The scenery is still here, but the person is gone," he sighs. He says he frequently comes to this par

Health & Safety

The New Rules For Mourners In Wuhan Have Angered Many Residents

2:41pm April 10, 2020

Zhang Hai's father died of the coronavirus on Feb. 1 and was cremated. Ashes can now be picked up, but the government requires a chaperone for visits to the crematorium as well as for burials.

Echo, an English Labrador, narrows down the search for the ashes of Kathy Lampi's mother. She died in June, but her cremains were lost in the wildfire in October.

National

Forensic Search Dogs Sniff Out Human Ashes In Wildfire Wreckage

9:52am February 03, 2018

by April Dembosky

Cremated loved ones were in some of the thousands of homes incinerated by wildfires in October. Archaeologists and search dogs are now looking for lost urns and human cremains among the rubble.

Mortician Caitlin Doughty has traveled around the world exploring the ways other cultures approach death.

Books
Arts

Mortician Explores Cultures' Many Paths For 'Sacred Transition' Of Death

2:31pm October 15, 2017

Caitlin Doughty, whose Los Angeles funeral home specializes in alternative ceremonies, traveled the world to collect stories about how different peoples send loved ones off to the great beyond.

Queue Listen Now

The columbarium where cremated remains are kept at Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Vatican: Don't Scatter Cremation Ashes, And Don't Keep Them At Home

4:03pm October 25, 2016

by Rebecca Hersher

New guidelines from the Roman Catholic Church note that the practice of cremation is increasing and recommend that ashes be buried in "cemeteries and other sacred places."