THE SENTENCE
ANDERSON, Ind. Adrianne Love McCoy, a former funeral director at Legacy Cremation and Funeral Services, pleaded guilty October 5 in Madison Circuit Court 1 to two counts of theft as Level 6 felonies. Judge Angela G. Warner Sims sentenced her the same afternoon: two years in the Department of Correction, with 728 of the sentence's 730 days suspended to reporting probation. The order credits her one day served and one day of good-time credit. The sentence leaves no custody time to serve.
The case is Cause No. 48C01-2511-F5-002984, filed November 3, 2025. Fox59 reported the sentencing on October 9; the online docket shows the plea and the sentencing both occurred October 5.
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The judgment orders $30,000 in restitution to "the charged victim," without naming who that is. The same order vacated the no-contact provision with the charged victim and issued a no-trespass order in favor of Legacy Cremation and Funeral Services. It sets her minimum restitution payment at 25 percent of net disposable earnings, the wage-garnishment rate, beginning within 90 days, and provides that her reporting probation steps down to non-reporting probation once restitution is paid. The court's financial page shows nothing paid as of October 12.
WHAT PROSECUTORS BUILT, AND WHAT SURVIVED
Charging papers alleged seven felonies: corrupt business influence as a Level 5 felony, plus two counts of theft, two counts of forgery, and two counts of fraud, all Level 6. The F5 in the cause number comes from that top count.
The same day it filed charges, the State filed a Notice of Intent to Seek Habitual Offender Status. Such a filing tells the court the State believes it can prove prior felony convictions, which can add years to a sentence. The docket shows no ruling on it. The final judgment carries no habitual enhancement, and five of the seven counts were dismissed, including the Level 5. In Indiana's online court records, McCoy's only other case is a 2002 speeding infraction in Harrison Superior Court.
The dispositional hearing was reset five times across 2026, with notes that negotiations were ongoing, before a presentence investigation landed September 25 and the plea closed the case October 5.
The sentencing order also permits McCoy to petition, after a statutory waiting period, to convert the two felony convictions to Class A misdemeanors. The State reserved the right to object.
THE MONEY AND THE GAP
The probable cause affidavit, cited by Fox59, WTHR and The Herald Bulletin, put the theft at exactly $47,805.98 across 2024 and 2025. McCoy had worked at the Anderson firm since September 2017, and investigators said only the most recent budget was thoroughly examined.
The charging papers break the loss into pieces: $3,225.65 taken from families through overcharges and lost cash, $6,785.58 in false Medicaid billing, $4,582.15 in incorrect billing to trustees, roughly $10,000 in personal Amazon spending, and the remainder in checks and card charges that paid for a country club, lawn care, a hairdresser, massage, and gifts to family and friends.
The $30,000 restitution order covers 63 cents of every stolen dollar. The remaining $17,805.98 appears nowhere in the judgment, and the docket does not explain the difference.
Legacy Executive Vice President Jan Smith said in November 2025 that the company "acted swiftly to release McCoy once criminal activity was detected" and that "most of the malfeasance was directed towards our company and not our customers." Fox59 asked whether affected families were notified and refunded. The funeral home never answered.
MEDICAID PAID FOR THE FUNERALS
Indiana runs a Burial Assistance Program for deceased Medicaid recipients. It pays up to $1,200 toward a funeral director's expenses and up to $800 toward cemetery costs, $2,000 combined, on qualifying arrangements.
At the state board's October 2, 2025 meeting, a company representative said McCoy twice sold families a paid-in-full direct cremation, then filed for the $1,200 payment that should have gone to each family and kept it. The false Medicaid billing total, $6,785.58, works out to between five and six payments at the program's $1,200 funeral maximum.
Medicaid provider fraud in Indiana belongs to the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. No Medicaid fraud count appears anywhere in this case. The plea rests on theft counts alone.
THE LICENSE STILL OPEN
The State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Service summarily suspended McCoy's funeral director license, FD21800002, in Cause No. 202509-FCB-0008. Board minutes show the suspension extended December 4, 2025 and February 5, 2026. She has not appeared on a board agenda since, and no final disciplinary order exists as of October 12.
Indiana Code 25-1-9-4 lists a criminal conviction involving fraudulent billing practices among the findings that support professional sanctions. The board's October 1 meeting was canceled. It next meets October 28, then December 3. The Attorney General's office told the board in June that its litigation files average 21 months old.
THREE INDIANA CASES, THREE OUTCOMES
McCoy is the third Indiana funeral professional charged with stealing deathcare money in the past year. Joshua Silvers of New Castle drew six years of home detention in September for a $170,984 preneed theft. Gary Greiner of Terre Haute faces 37 counts over more than $552,000 in preneed money on a trial track pointing to January 2027. McCoy, whose theft totaled $47,805.98, drew the only sentence with no custody.
For a yardstick: under the same theft statute McCoy pleaded to, taking a motor vehicle is a Level 6 felony no matter what the car is worth, with an advisory sentence of six months. Indiana grades a stolen $5,000 car and $47,805.98 taken from grieving families and a Medicaid program at the same felony level.
WHAT'S NEXT
McCoy begins probation owing $30,000, with a condition that she maintain employment of at least 35 hours a week. No civil suit against her appears in Indiana's online courts. The board could act as soon as October 28. Whether discipline treats a $47,805.98 theft, including money meant for Medicaid burial assistance, more seriously than the criminal court did is the open question.
Obitley sent a records request to the City of Anderson and written inquiries to the Madison County Prosecutor's Office, Legacy Cremation and Funeral Services, and the Attorney General's Medicaid Fraud Control Unit on October 12. None had responded by publication. Responses will be added to this article as they arrive.
*Sources: Indiana MyCase, Cause No. 48C01-2511-F5-002984 (reviewed October 12, 2026); Indiana Funeral and Cemetery Board agendas and minutes, Cause No. 202509-FCB-0008; Fox59 (November 5, 2025; October 9, 2026); WTHR; The Herald Bulletin; Indiana FSSA Burial Assistance Program.*
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