Brooklyn funeral home shut down months after bodies found in U-Hauls during height of pandemic

COVID-19 News and Information
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
BROOKLYN, New York (WABC) -- A funeral home in Brooklyn has been shut down months after bodies were found decomposing in a truck outside the facility.

Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services was shuttered for "egregious violations" at the height of the pandemic.

Back in April, dozens of bodies were found inside a U-Haul outside the funeral home and other remains were discovered throughout the building.

Owner Andrew Cleckley has been fined $68,000 and stripped of his funeral-director license.

He appealed to State Health Commissioner Howard Zucker who upheld the judge's ruling.

"I was the only funeral director during this pandemic who was singled out!" Andrew Cleckley said to Eyewitness News back in August.

Cleckley commented on the case to Eyewitness News in August 2020

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As COVID deaths hit staggering numbers back in April, horrifying images surfaced from Cleckley's funeral home in the Flatlands section of Brooklyn.

Images of a hundred corpses, wrapped in body bags, stacked on top of one another and loaded into two U-Haul trucks.

"I was still storing remains as much as I could on the refrigerated truck," Cleckley had said. "There were other directors who had U-Haul trucks but not myself."

Cleckley had said five other funeral directors at the time were operating out of his location, sharing his space.

A response from Cleckley on the closure has not yet been obtained.

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