ANNAPOLIS, Md. (7News) — 7News first reported on issues at Heaven Bound Cremation Services in Waldorf, Maryland in January. At the time, the Charles County Health Department ordered the business closed, as state health department documents released a long list of violations. They alleged an inspection found 18 improperly stored bodies, including some that were decomposing. The cremation chamber was nonfunctioning, according to officials and family members told 7News they were given ashes only to be told their loved ones hadn’t been cremated.
The scandal prompted a hearing before a Maryland House of Delegates Committee during which it was revealed that the state’s lone funeral home and crematorium inspector had gone two years without doing a single inspection and that some facilities hadn’t been inspected in nearly a decade.
Now, a bill has been introduced in Maryland’s General Assembly to ensure it never happens again. Bill sponsor Del. Harry Bhandari, a Baltimore County Democrat, said, “It is about stopping those who exploit trust and hurt people when they are most vulnerable.”…