Bodies exhumed, additional charges in mortuary case
ABC-7 has another update to the investigation of a local mortuary business and funeral home, involving bodies that were allegedly going to be transported to Juarez using forged documents.
The owner of Mortuary Services, Inc., now faces additional charges, and the Sheriff’s Office says another person from the funeral home has been arrested in this case.
Joseph Solis, owner of Mortuary Services, Inc., faces five additional counts of tampering with a government record. He was arrested last month on 37 counts of forgery and 35 counts of abuse of a corpse.
Solis is accused of forging documents to transport bodies across state lines. With the additional five counts his bonds now total more than $650,000.
Last week, the Sheriff’s Office arrested a third employee of El Paso Mission Funeral Home. Marta Cecilia Ruedas, who we do not have a mug shot for, was arrested on five charges of violating funeral director regulations, one charge of tampering with a government document and one charge of forgery. Her bonds total $25,000.
Previously arrested were Marta Cecilia Ruedas’s ex-mother in law and husband. Lina Ruedas, the owner of El Paso Mission Funeral Home, and her son, Antonio Ruedas, who is listed as the funeral director, were arrested in September on suspicion of corpse abuse, forgery and tampering with government records.
Lina Ruedas’s bonds total $225,000 dollars and her son’s total $75,000.
Two bodies have now been exhumed as part of the investigation. One was exhumed at Mcgill Cemetery in Northeast El Paso on Tuesday. A second was exhumed Wednesday at Mount Carmel Cemetery in East El Paso.
According to a Sheriff’s Office release, the two bodies were exhumed due to “inconsistencies concerning where these remains should have been buried.”
ABC-7 went to El Paso Mission Funeral Home in the 2600 block of East Yandell on Thursday, where the doors were locked. The Central El Paso funeral home, whose slogan is “Our Mission is Caring,” appears to have been shut down.
The Sheriff’s Office would like to speak with anyone who purchased a prepaid funeral plan through El Paso Mission Funeral Home, anyone who received a refund from the funeral home or anyone who did not receive a loved one’s cremated remains. Contact them at 915-538-2291.
