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Complaint filed against local funeral director
By Justin Goble and Lynn Hotaling
Three months after paying for a headstone that has not been erected at her father’s gravesite, a Whittier woman has accused the former owner of Moody Funeral Home of taking her family’s money.
Sheila Tolley last week filed a criminal complaint with the Sylva Police Department against Reg Moody Jr. Tolley alleges her family paid Moody’s in August for a headstone for her father, Henry Ashe, who died in July. Ashe is buried at Fairview Memorial Gardens. While the check for the tombstone had cleared, there is still no marker on her father’s grave, she said.
Tolley said her troubles with Moody Funeral Home started shortly after her father’s death.
These flowers in Fairview Memorial Gardens mark the grave of Henry Ashe, who died in July. Ashe’s daughter, Sheila Tolley, has filed a criminal complaint with the Sylva Police Department against Reg Moody Jr. for not installing the tombstone her family has paid for at the gravesite. Tolley said a check was sent to Moody Funeral Home in August to pay for the marker; that check has cleared, yet nothing has been done. “An employee at Moody’s told me Reg put the money in his personal account to pay for his ‘toys,’ ” she said. Sylva Police Detective John Buchanan said an investigation into the matter is under way. – Herald photo by Justin Goble.
“Dad bought a plot at the cemetery in 1984, but when we went to have the graveside service, they were trying to put him in someone else’s lot,” she said. “So we went ahead and had the service, and the whole time the backhoe was digging out the lot he had bought. By the time they were done with the service, the people from Moody’s were still digging out his grave. They had to put him back on refrigeration and bury him later.”
Tolley said her family then ordered a tombstone through Moody Funeral Home using money from Ashe’s funeral fund. Though the family picked out a marker and sent a check to Moody’s so the marker could be installed in August, the funeral home has yet to place the stone.
“When I called to ask what was being done, one of the employee’s at Moody’s told me Reg had deposited it into his personal account to pay for his ‘toys,’ ” Tolley said. “It’s only when I threatened to take legal action that they started back-peddling and telling us that something would be done. They keep saying they’ll take care of it, but nothing has been done. So I filed a complaint with the police department.
“I don’t care about money,” Tolley said. “I just want closure.”
Sylva Police Detective John Buchanan said he had begun an investigation into the matter, but there is nothing to report so far.
“It’s one of those very slow cases,” he said. “I’m waiting to meet with the district attorney and discuss it, then we’ll go from there.”
When contacted Tuesday, Moody first said he didn’t know there had been a complaint filed and then said The Herald could contact his attorney, Jay Coward.
Coward indicated a short time later that he was unaware of the criminal complaint and therefore could not comment.
The Moody family has operated the Sylva funeral home since 1922, when it was begun by P.E. Moody, great-grandfather of Reg Moody Jr. Foreclosure notices for the business were listed in The Herald in July, but the property auction was delayed until Sept. 12, when Phil Ferguson of Clyde was the initial high bidder at $799,000. However, Sylva law firm Coward, Hicks and Siler, which includes Jay Coward, filed an upset bid of $838,950 on Sept. 24 and purchased the property on Oct. 4. Attorney David Moore, also of Coward, Hicks and Siler, is listed on court papers as agent.
When contacted by The Herald the week after the sale, Moore said the firm was holding the funeral home for a client but declined to name the client.
Moore two weeks ago referred The Herald’s call to Coward, who said the law firm is holding the funeral home in trust for a client he could not name.
When contacted Tuesday, Coward said that as far as he knew the law firm could hold the funeral home in trust indefinitely, but that he expects a closing in the near future that will put the funeral home in the client’s name.
Moody’s remains in business, with Reg Moody Jr. the licensed funeral director in charge, Coward said.
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