A van is stolen from a funeral home in Illinois
Law enforcement released footage of the funeral home of the male suspect who stole the van. The suspect identified from the footage as 23-year-old Deon Howard and will be charged with unlawful possession of a stolen body and abuse of a corpse, but is currently still at large.
On Jan. 21, a van was stolen from a funeral home with the body of a dead man inside. The van was stolen from Collins & Stones Funeral home in Rockford, Illinois. Law enforcement was able to find the van the next day an hour and a half away in Chicago. When the van was found abandoned, the deceased body was not in the van.
The deceased man was later identified as 47-year-old Curtis Brown. Brown’s body was found the next day 100 miles away from where the funeral home is located. The Rockford Police Department received a call from a citizen in Chicago reporting the body. Brown’s body was located in an alleyway behind a set of houses, removed from the body bag he was placed in when he was in the back of the van.
Law enforcement released footage of the funeral home of the male suspect who stole the van. The suspect identified from the footage as 23-year-old Deon Howard and will be charged with unlawful possession of a stolen body and abuse of a corpse, but is currently still at large.
Brown’s family was not notified about the body being stolen until the following Monday. Law enforcement is presuming Howard purposefully stole the body due to the fact the body was removed from the bag, and in the footage released he is wearing all black.
Information was released from Rockford police regarding the director of the funeral home. The director has multiple violations including unprofessional conduct, failure to file death certificates in a timely manner, and aiding and assisting unlicensed practice, unprofessional conduct and aiding and assisting unlicensed practice. The director was fined and placed on probation in 2021 and is to be released from probation in May of this year.
The director Brandy Collins has refused to make any comments or participate in any interviews. Brown’s brother, Ed Brown, told reporters Collins is withholding information on what really happened when his brother went missing.
The family is working on getting Brown to his final resting place in Mississippi where he was born and raised, and can be laid to rest where the majority of his family lives. Brown passed away on Jan. 20 at his job due to natural causes.
