DISCLOSE, BUT KEEP OPERATING: How Thin Inspection Staffing Lets Bad Actors Survive in Deathcare

Four states. Four public records requests. Four very different answers about who is watching the deathcare industry.

The results, obtained through public records requests filed by Obitley on July 11, 2026, paint a picture of a regulatory landscape where disclosure requirements exist on paper but enforcement is so inconsistent that fraud and abuse can operate undetected for years.

Colorado: Zero Inspections, Then a Scandal

Colorado's response is the most revealing because of what it admits.

The Colorado Division of Professions and Occupations, which oversees funeral homes and crematories through the Office of Funeral and Mortuary Science Services, conducted zero routine inspections in 2020 and 2021. Not a single one. In 2022, the office performed five. In 2023, it performed 20.

Then the Return to Nature scandal happened.

In October 2023, investigators discovered approximately 190 decaying bodies at Return to Nature Funeral Home in Penrose, Colorado. Operators Jon and Carie Hallford had stored the remains in a building without refrigeration, handed families fake ashes, and continued accepting new business for years. The case became one of the worst funeral home abuse scandals in American history.

After the scandal, inspection activity jumped. Colorado performed 40 inspections in 2024, double the previous year. Governor Jared Polis signed HB 24-1335 into law on May 24, 2024, which for the first time required routine inspections of funeral homes and crematories in the state.

The fiscal note for that bill is blunt about why. The legislation required "2.8 FTE" in new staffing because DORA needed two inspectors to "conduct routine inspections of funeral homes and crematories, which it currently does not do under the existing regulations."

In other words: Colorado regulators acknowledged in writing that they did not inspect funeral homes. The legislature had to pass a law to make them start.

Indiana: Five Inspectors, More Than 600 Facilities

Indiana provided the most complete data of any state responding to Obitley's request.

As of July 1, 2026, Indiana has:

• 477 licensed funeral homes
• 141 licensed crematoriums
• 171 licensed funeral branches
• 1,606 licensed funeral directors

That is at least 618 physical facilities. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency confirmed that five full-time inspectors cover all of them.

Indiana's inspection data shows a steady ramp-up:

At 132 funeral home inspections across 477 licensed facilities in 2025, each facility would be inspected roughly once every 3.6 years. That assumes every inspection targets a different facility, which is not guaranteed. Complaint-driven inspections can revisit the same location multiple times.

The drop to 15 inspections in 2021 is notable. Indiana has not publicly explained that gap. The 2020 pandemic disrupted state operations nationwide, but 2021 should have been a recovery year, not a collapse.

Emma Yarber, Director of Legislative Affairs and Communications for the Indiana Professional Licensing Agency, responded to Obitley's request within four business days and provided the attached data. She directed legislative questions to the Indiana General Assembly website.

Wisconsin: A Non-Response to Every Question

Wisconsin's response is the shortest and the most frustrating.

The Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services did not answer a single question in Obitley's public records request. The agency responded with a form email stating that its licensing lists are "temporarily unavailable" and that "there is no specific date for when the list request service is expected to return."

The email was signed by an Office Operations Associate. It did not address any of the five questions in the request. It did not mention inspector counts, inspection frequency, staffing levels, or legislative activity.

Obitley's request did not ask for a licensing list. It asked for five specific data points: the number of licensed funeral establishments, the number of FTE investigators, annual inspection counts, staffing reports, and recent legislation. All of these are aggregate numbers that should be available from internal agency records without needing a list generation tool.

Obitley has sent a follow-up request to DSPS clarifying that the questions ask for counts, not lists, and requesting a substantive response by July 25, 2026.

Wisconsin has approximately 320 licensed funeral establishments. Without inspector counts or inspection data from the agency, Obitley cannot independently determine how frequently those facilities are inspected or whether dedicated deathcare investigators exist.

The agency's inability to answer basic questions about its own enforcement operations, even in response to a formal public records request, raises questions about what else it cannot track.

Delaware: Look It Up Yourself

Delaware's response was not a refusal. It was an instruction to go away.

The Delaware Division of Professional Regulation replied to Obitley's public records request by directing the publication to the state's DELPROS online portal, where members of the public can search for individual licensees one at a time. The agency did not provide inspector counts, inspection frequency, staffing levels, or any of the aggregate data requested. It did not address questions about legislation or regulatory reports.

Delaware has a relatively small number of licensed funeral establishments. But the agency's response suggests it does not track, or will not share, basic enforcement metrics. A state that cannot tell you how many inspectors it has is a state that cannot tell you whether its funeral homes are being inspected.

Delaware's response is particularly notable because the state was the epicenter of the Gregory Stefan Jr. case, in which nearly 500 families across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware were defrauded out of more than $1.5 million between 2018 and 2023. No regulatory agency detected the pattern. Families did.

The Pattern: Disclose, But Keep Operating

The data from these four states reveals a structural problem in deathcare regulation.

The federal Funeral Rule, enforced by the FTC, requires funeral homes to provide General Price Lists, Casket Price Lists, and Outer Burial Container Price Lists to consumers. The Rule is a disclosure law. It requires businesses to tell consumers what things cost. It does not require routine inspection of facilities. It does not cover standalone monument dealers who sell headstones without providing funeral services.

The FTC Funeral Rule does not have its own inspection force. Compliance is largely complaint-driven. The FTC brings enforcement actions against individual funeral homes, but the agency does not maintain a standing inspection program for the nation's approximately 15,401 funeral homes.

State boards fill the gap inconsistently. Colorado did not inspect at all until forced by legislation. Wisconsin will not confirm whether it has any dedicated investigators. Delaware told a journalist to look up licensees herself. Indiana inspects each funeral home roughly once every three to four years with five inspectors.

This creates a system where the rules say "disclose" but the enforcement mechanism says "keep operating." A funeral home that violates the Funeral Rule, or worse, can continue serving families for years between inspections. In some states, it can operate indefinitely without ever being inspected.

What That Gap Allows

The cases Obitley has documented show what happens in those gaps.

Richard Randolph Freeman Jr. operated a monument and headstone business out of Greencastle, Pennsylvania. He took upfront payments from at least 60 families for headstones and grave markers that were never delivered. The fraud spanned 2019 to 2023. He was not caught by a regulatory inspection. He was caught when families went to the police.

Gregory J. Stefan Jr. defrauded nearly 500 families across Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware out of more than $1.5 million between 2018 and 2023. He sold headstones through multiple companies. No regulatory agency inspected his operation or flagged the pattern of undelivered orders.

Jeffrey Phares operated four cemeteries across West Virginia, taking an estimated $250,000 to $550,000 from families for grave markers that were never installed. He was caught through a federal investigation, not a state inspection.

In all three cases, the regulatory system did not detect the fraud. Families did.

The Cost of Reactive Enforcement

Colorado's post-scandal legislation provides a model and a price tag.

HB 24-1335 appropriated $339,196 for FY 2024-25 to fund 3.0 FTE positions, including two inspectors and program support. The fiscal note details vehicle leases, travel costs, inspector equipment, and legal services. The total annual cost is approximately $392,000.

That is the cost of inspecting Colorado's approximately 330 registered funeral establishments and crematories with two dedicated inspectors.

Indiana spends on five inspectors for more than 600 facilities. Wisconsin will not say how many inspectors it has, or whether it has any. Delaware will not say either.

The question is not whether states can afford to inspect funeral homes. Colorado proved that two inspectors can cover 330 facilities for under $400,000 per year. The question is whether states choose to.

What Comes Next

Obitley sent identical public records requests to nine states on July 11, 2026. Responses from Colorado, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Delaware are documented above.

Colorado provided substantive data. Indiana provided the most complete response. Wisconsin refused to answer, citing a system outage. Delaware told a journalist to look up licensees individually through a state portal. Obitley has sent a follow-up request to Wisconsin clarifying that the questions ask for counts, not lists.

The following states have not yet responded: Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia. Obitley has also sent separate requests to New York and Florida. Those requests, sent June 28, 2026, have received no response. Follow-up requests are being sent.

Obitley will publish updated data as each state responds. The full data set will be maintained and updated as a public resource.

If you have information about funeral home inspections, regulatory complaints, or deathcare fraud in your state, contact Obitley at [email protected].