Missouri's State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors has revoked the funeral director license of James C. McSpadden, owner of Richards Funeral Home in New Madrid. The order was entered Sept. 24, 2026; the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance (DCI) announced it Sept. 25. Court records show McSpadden is charged with one count of felony stealing; KFVS12 first reported the charge the same day.
The revocation covers funeral director license No. 007271, held since 1999. The order leaves his embalmer license (No. 007547) and preneed agent registration (No. 2013043603) in good standing, and the funeral home's establishment license (No. 001868) untouched.
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By the Numbers
What the board found
Preneed is the industry term for funeral contracts and money paid in advance. State law requires sellers to deposit the money in a financial institution and report the contracts to the board.
The order lays out nine counts. The first three track the preneed paperwork. McSpadden failed to renew the funeral home's preneed provider license, which expired Oct. 31, 2025. He also failed to file the preneed seller annual report or respond to the board's financial examination of those records.
Counts IV and V involve two consumers, R.B. and C.P., identified in the order only by initials. The board found he failed to provide each one a headstone or a refund. KFVS reported the headstone cost $1,400; the order and the DCI release contain no dollar figure.
Count VI contains the order's strongest words. The board found he failed to deposit preneed funeral funds for M.L.J. and J.G.J. and to list the contracts on his annual report. That failure "is the misappropriate or theft of preneed funds" under Section 333.330(10) RSMo, the order states. The phrase is an administrative finding by a licensing board.
Count VII found McSpadden charged a fee for a burial gown he did not provide for a consumer identified as A.H-G., then failed to resolve the matter with the family. The board also found he refused and obstructed its inspection (Count VIII), violating Section 333.101 RSMo. Count IX found he filed no death certificate for B.M. within five days, as Section 193.145 RSMo requires.
From probation to revocation
The path began Sept. 24, 2025, when the board placed his funeral director license on probation. On June 18, 2026, the board issued its probation-violation complaint and notice of hearing. The packet came back unclaimed by the Post Office.
A process server failed to reach McSpadden across July and August 2026 despite multiple attempts. "McSpadden was actively concealing himself from the Board's inspectors," the order states. The board then served him by publication, meaning legal notice ran in a newspaper. First publication ran 45 days before the hearing, per the publisher's affidavit.
The board heard the matter on Sept. 16, 2026, with attorney Samantha Green representing it and Tom Townsend as legal advisor. McSpadden did not appear. The order came eight days later, and DCI published its release the next morning.
The criminal track
Court records fill in the criminal case. McSpadden is charged with stealing $750 or more, a class D felony under Section 570.030 RSMo, in an offense dated Oct. 27, 2023, according to the complaint filed Sept. 14 in New Madrid County Circuit Court, case no. 26NM-CR00445. Prosecuting Attorney Andrew Lawson filed the complaint with a probable cause statement. A $500 cash-only warrant issued the day of filing and was recalled the next morning; the sheriff personally served him with a summons Sept. 16. Arraignment is set for Oct. 20 before Judge William W. Carter.
KFVS12 first reported the charge Sept. 25. New Madrid County Sheriff Joey Higgerson says the investigation remains open and active, per the same report. A charge is an accusation; no conviction has been alleged.
The alleged offense date, October 2023, predates the board's preneed findings. Nothing in the court file says whether the charged stealing involves the same money the board called misappropriated preneed funds; the two allegations remain separate.
Second in two days
The McSpadden order is the second Missouri preneed-related revocation announced in two days. A day earlier, the same board revoked 11 licenses in the [James & Gahr Mortuary case](/stories/james-gahr-missouri-license-revocations), with 30 days to move its preneed contracts to a new Missouri-licensed seller.
The order shows what happens when a preneed seller stops filing reports. The funeral home's preneed seller license, No. 2010008827, was suspended by operation of law under Section 436.460.7 RSMo, which mandates suspension when the annual report is late. Its preneed provider license, No. 2010008828, expired Oct. 31, 2025. Neither consequence required a hearing.
What happens next
The order directs McSpadden to immediately cease and desist the practice of funeral directing. He must return all indicia of licensure (his license documents) within 10 days. He cannot apply for licensure until three years from the date of revocation, under Section 333.330.5 RSMo. It remains permanent unless the board reinstates or issues a new license.
No restitution appears in the order or the DCI release. None of the six consumers identified by initials has compensation ordered through this administrative case.
For families holding preneed contracts with Richards Funeral Home, the paper trail is public: the board's discipline index at pr.mo.gov lists this order and every other enforcement action. Per the DCI release, the board investigates complaints about licensees and disciplines them when appropriate. A complaint is where that process starts.
What This Means for You
*Sources: Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance press release, Sept. 25, 2026; Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Disciplinary Order, file nos. 2025-003410, 2025-003783, 2026-001033, entered Sept. 24, 2026; Missouri Case.net, case no. 26NM-CR00445 (complaint, charge, service, arraignment), accessed Sept. 29, 2026; KFVS12 report, Sept. 25, 2026.*
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