State regulators have held settlement negotiations to permanently revoke the license of the director of a South Deering funeral home where 56 bodies were found rotting in “deplorable conditions” last month, officials said Monday.
The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation suspended Johanna Morgan’s funeral director and embalmer’s license Aug. 5 after investigators made the horrific discovery at South Chicago Chapel, owned by her husband, Clark Morgan, at 2939 E. 95th St.
During a brief teleconference hearing that marked the first step in adjudicating the grisly disciplinary case, attorneys for IDFPR and Johanna Morgan on Monday said they’ve discussed terms to potentially settle before advancing to a formal hearing scheduled later this fall.
Most state disciplinary cases are settled before reaching such a quasi-judicial hearing with witnesses and evidence — including past cases involving the Morgans, who had repeated run-ins with regulators in the decade leading up to the shocking discovery that has raised questions about Illinois’ disjointed oversight of the funeral industry.
The Evergreen Park couple agreed to a consent order in June 2025 while facing disturbingly similar allegations at their now-shuttered crematory in Chicago Heights, where investigators from the Illinois Comptroller’s Office found 44 bodies piled up, along with hundreds of sets of mishandled cremated remains.
A patchwork state oversight system charges the comptroller’s office with regulating crematories while IDFPR licenses funeral directors and embalmers — leaving Illinois as one of four states that doesn’t conduct regular inspections of funeral home facilities.
The Morgans agreed to shut down Heights Crematory but admitted no wrongdoing under their 2025 agreement with the comptroller’s office.
That case prompted IDFPR to visit the Morgans’ South Chicago Chapel in October 2025, when their investigators found “no serious concerns pertaining to the handling or storing of remains,” according to a timeline provided by Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
But IDFPR still moved that month to revoke Johanna Morgan’s license, largely because her husband was transporting bodies under her purview with a forged license, according to agency records.
Clark Morgan had a state funeral director and embalmer intern license that he allowed to lapse in 2019, and which he then had revoked permanently in 2024 after picking up bodies at hospitals with a license showing “an altered expiration date,” authorities said.
The October 2025 case against Johanna Morgan was still pending when IDFPR officials visited South Chicago Chapel this summer, prompted by information that the chapel had utilized the crematory at Bohemian National Cemetery — which is facing its own questions about improperly stored remains.
That’s when investigators found dozens of bodies “in an unrefrigerated area with deplorable conditions including rodent infestation, causing decomposition and maggot infestation of the bodies,” IDFPR officials said.
On Monday, an attorney for Johanna Morgan — who didn’t take part in the hearing — sought to consolidate the two disciplinary cases against her.
IDFPR Administrative Law Judge Donald Seasock rejected that motion “given the nature of the [2026] allegations, and the purpose of the act: protection of public health, safety and welfare.”
Attorneys for the Morgans have declined to comment. Seasock noted Johanna Morgan hasn’t formally answered the complaint against her as required by state rule, and he ordered a response within two weeks.
The couple got their respective licenses in the late 1990s and each faced their first suspensions in 2017 for failing to file state income taxes.
Johanna Morgan was reprimanded and fined $1,500 that year for transporting “a decedent across state lines for burial prior to obtaining required permits,” records show. She was also fined $5,000 in 2024 for failing to complete and file three death records “in a timely manner” in 2020.
The state has filed four tax liens on the couple’s south suburban home, outside of which Evergreen Park police found two bodies in a double-parked minivan during a bizarre June 2024 encounter.
Clark Morgan explained to officers that he had picked up the remains from a hospice center and had to stop to use the bathroom while en route to their crematory. Cook County prosecutors later advised police that the scenario violated no state law.
Illinois State Police have said they’re still conducting a criminal investigation in the Chicago Heights case, and assisting Chicago police in the ongoing South Chicago Chapel probe.
State lawmakers could try to bolster funeral industry oversight during the fall veto session in Springfield.
Contributing: Keenan Chen
