The Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors has filed three disciplinary complaints against one north St. Louis funeral home since 2023, and the state's own tribunal docket confirms the count: the Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission, the body that hears disciplinary cases, lists three matters naming Serenity Memorial, numbered 23-0735, 25-1645 and 26-0576, checked September 27. The newest filing, according to a First Alert 4 investigation published September 21, includes a family's account of a June 2025 visitation where the father's face appeared deformed and partly covered in wax.
Brandy Wren told First Alert 4 she waited hours at Serenity's funeral home on Union Boulevard before viewing her father, Edward Campbell Sr., a 66-year-old Marine Corps veteran who died in 2025 after a three-year bout with ALS. His face showed cracks covered in wax, and his nose caved in where she touched it.
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By the Numbers
The complaints
The 2023 complaint, matter 23-0735, alleges state inspections found a body in the embalming room that could not be readily identified and bodies that appeared unembalmed given a foul odor and blood stains, per First Alert 4. An inspector reported bodies held in an overflow room for an extended period, one without an identification tag and one with an illegible tag. The complaint's final count says Johnson, a licensed embalmer, certified embalming dates that predated the bodies' release from the medical examiner's office. "Johnson made false statements regarding the dates of embalming on at least 15 death certificates" in a four-month span, the complaint says.
In public filings, Serenity denied nearly every allegation, including the claims of an unidentified body, unembalmed bodies, extended storage in an overflow room, and falsified embalming dates. The denials hinged on the state not naming the decedents, which the funeral home said left it without enough information to respond. It admitted the register log, the record of decedents and arrival times, was "shortly prior to the site visit, discovered to be missing," and said it was later provided to the board.
The 2025 complaint, matter 25-1645, alleges a register log was again unavailable at a state inspection and that at least eight bodies could not be identified and two others were in question, per First Alert 4. It also includes an employee complaint saying Johnson ordered an unlicensed worker to embalm; that employee "was not, and has never been, a licensed embalmer" and embalmed from April through July of 2022, the filing says. Serenity said all bodies in question were identified during the inspection and denied Johnson directed unlicensed embalming.
The 2026 filing, matter 26-0576, includes Wren's account and a woman's complaint that her son was buried without her knowledge after the service was canceled. The funeral home's written response admitted the decedent was buried without any family or friends present. Katelynn Schooley of the Pittsburgh Institute of Mortuary Science, a licensed funeral director and embalmer, reviewed the visitation photos for First Alert 4 and said they showed "desquamation on the left side of his face that was covered with possibly wax and heavy cosmetics." Desquamation, skin sloughing off in sheets, is a natural part of decomposition that embalming and refrigeration slow.
The board wrote that the alleged violations amounted to "incompetency, misconduct, gross negligence, fraud, misrepresentation, and/or dishonesty."
The countersuit
Johnson filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in 2025 claiming the state's 2023 restraining-order attempt, denied by a judge before that case was dismissed, amounted to "malicious prosecution" and that officials "conspired to destroy Serenity's business" and bypassed administrative review, per the report. The Missouri Attorney General's Office wrote that the suit "fails to plead the prima facie case for malicious prosecution" and argued sovereign immunity.
The federal docket, reviewed by Obitley, shows the case remains active in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. A judge dismissed part of the suit in October 2025, but the claims against two state officials named individually, board executive director Patty Faenger and investigator Nick McBroom, survived, and a jury trial is scheduled for April 2027. Court records show Johnson's side filed a motion to compel on September 25, two days before this story. The claims against the officials are allegations that have not been proven; neither official has been found liable for anything.
Case status
An August order from the hearing commission allowed for disciplinary action against Serenity's license; the case is not completely settled, a hearing is expected later this year, and Serenity could appeal, according to its attorney. No disciplinary action has taken effect. The 2025 and 2026 cases await final decisions, and neither the funeral home nor Johnson had been served with the 2026 complaint as of September 21, per attorney Melvin Raymond. The board's public discipline list showed no entry for Serenity or Johnson as of September 27.
A review of the hearing commission's public case search the same day fills in the picture: the index lists the 2023 matter as closed and the two newer matters, 25-1645 and 26-0576, as open, with no hearing dates shown for either. The index lists no fourth matter naming Serenity and none naming Johnson separately.
Why it matters
The board's discipline page is the record families can check. More than three years passed between the first complaint and the August order allowing discipline, and as of September 27 the page listed no entry for Serenity or Johnson.
For families
Missouri license and discipline records are searchable on the state board's site at pr.mo.gov. Families can file complaints with the board, and the AHC offers a public case search at ahc.mo.gov.
What This Means for You
*Sources: First Alert 4 (KMOV) investigation, September 21, 2026; Missouri Administrative Hearing Commission public case search, matters 23-0735, 25-1645 and 26-0576, checked September 27, 2026; Missouri State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors discipline records, pr.mo.gov, checked September 27, 2026; U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri docket, Johnson v. Faenger, No. 4:25-cv-00704*
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