On April 11, 2025, Texas Funeral Service Commission inspectors entered Richardson Mortuary on Brookfield Drive in Houston. Three days later, the commission ordered the establishment to stop operating. Investigators removed the remains of 102 people from the building: 13 bodies and 89 sets of cremated remains.
Eighteen months on, no one has been found liable for anything connected to the case.
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By the Numbers
What inspectors found
The commission's inspection cited Richardson Mortuary for failing to meet building, health, and safety codes under Texas Occupations Code 651.351(d), and for fraudulent, unprofessional, or deceptive conduct under 651.459. The cease-and-desist order that followed, dated April 14, 2025 and addressed to owners Michael Ray Richardson and Gayle Elaine Bell, gave them 14 days to produce decedent lists, next-of-kin information, and a licensed staff roster covering the previous year. The order carries penalty exposure of up to $5,000 per violation per day, and by its own terms remains in effect until lifted by written directive of the commission's executive director. The mortuary is still closed.
The conditions inside became public that same month. Siblings Davon and Tamara McGruder posted video of the storage conditions at the facility. A man recording video there was stabbed by an employee and treated for minor injuries. Houston police officers who responded observed at least 10 bodies.
The owners' explanation was the building itself. Hurricane Beryl damaged it in July 2024, and both owners pointed to ongoing repairs when describing how remains came to be stored the way they were, according to statements Bell gave investigators that were reported from the charging documents.
What the criminal case alleged
In October 2025, the Harris County District Attorney's Office charged Richardson and Bell with three counts each of abuse of corpse, a state jail felony carrying up to two years. A security guard at the facility was also charged.
The charging documents described families paying for services they did not receive. One family paid $17,330 for funeral services the documents say were not delivered as promised. The mortuary also allegedly failed to pay Spectrum Deathcare Services, the company hired to transport and provide cold storage for the recovered remains.
No trial ever tested any of it.
Why the charges went away
Bell's three counts were dismissed on April 30, 2026. Richardson's were dismissed on May 28, 2026, the day they were set for court. A spokesperson for the district attorney's office told Houston Public Media: "The charges were dismissed, but are subject to being re-filed because the case cannot be proven beyond a reasonable doubt at this time."
That sentence carries two facts worth holding onto. The state could not prove its case now, and the state kept the door open to filing it again.
The charging documents also contained a split between the owners. Bell told investigators that Richardson kept her out of the section where bodies were stored. The state's license records list Bell as the funeral director in charge of the establishment. With every charge dismissed and no trial held, no court ever heard testimony about what either owner knew.
Texas abuse-of-corpse law, Penal Code 42.08, makes it a crime for a person, without legal authority, to knowingly treat a human corpse in an offensive manner. The statute defines a human corpse to include cremated remains, a definition that covers the 89 sets recovered from the facility. No ruling in this case ever drew that line, because no trial was held.
What This Means for You
A cease-and-desist closed the building. It did not establish who is accountable for the remains of 102 people, and 18 months later, no other proceeding has either.
The regulator's silence
The Texas Funeral Service Commission moved fast in April 2025. The inspection happened April 11. The order was signed April 14.
What is missing is everything after. No final disciplinary order, no agreed order, no administrative penalty, and no license revocation against Richardson Mortuary, Richardson, or Bell appears in any public record in the 18 months since. The April 2025 cease-and-desist remains the operative document, and the commission has announced nothing further that Obitley could find.
The commission's public verification portal fills in the rest of the license picture. Michael Ray Richardson's funeral director and embalmer license, number 10596, shows a status of null and void as of an April 30, 2025 expiration date, two weeks after the cease-and-desist order. Gayle Elaine Bell, licensed as a funeral director and embalmer since 1992 and listed by the state as the funeral director in charge of Richardson Mortuary, holds license 9935, which shows a status of delinquent after its July 31, 2026 renewal date passed. The establishment itself was licensed under the name Richardson Mortuary-Hiram Clarke, for the southwest Houston neighborhood where it operated, license 2204, with its inspection site of record at 3201 Brookfield Drive. That license shows a status of closed with an October 31, 2025 expiration. All three records carry the same notation: there are disciplinary actions against the license. What those actions are, the portal does not say. On October 15, 2026, Obitley filed a Public Information Act request with the commission seeking any final enforcement action arising from the April 2025 inspection and, if none exists, a written statement of that fact along with the current license status of the establishment and any funeral director or embalmer license held by either owner.
The commission's enforcement capacity is the subject of prior Obitley reporting. In August, the commission disclosed that it employs two inspectors for 1,674 licensed funeral establishments and crematories, the worst ratio documented in any state Obitley has investigated. /stories/texas-one-inspector-837-funeral-homes
What happens next
The records request gives the commission roughly ten business days to respond with the records or a cost estimate. The criminal charges can be refiled. Whether any family has sued in Harris County civil court is not yet a matter of public record Obitley has been able to confirm; the case numbers for all three criminal defendants are also still to be pulled.
The commission told Houston media in May 2025 that Richardson Mortuary was "considered closed with no plans to reopen," after the owners partially complied and cited Richardson's health issues and the termination of the building lease. Whether that closure is still the state of things is part of what the records request asks the commission to put in writing.
Obitley's reporting on this case is in progress. This report will be updated when the commission responds.
Sources: Texas Funeral Service Commission Cease and Desist Order (April 14, 2025, primary document on file with Obitley); Texas Funeral Service Commission license verification portal records for licenses 10596, 9935, and 2204 (checked October 15, 2026, on file with Obitley); Houston Public Media (April 15, 2025; October 14, 2025; May 29, 2026); KHOU 11 reporting from charging documents, including the commission's May 2025 closure statement; Click2Houston (May 1, 2026); ABC13 (May 28, 2026); Texas Occupations Code 651.351, 651.459, 651.551; Texas Penal Code 42.08.
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