Chicago left a Sept. 24 hearing with everything it asked for in its case against South Chicago Chapel's operators. A Cook County judge granted the city a preliminary injunction barring the property at 2939 E. 95th St. from being leased, used or occupied, and a court-ordered inspection, ABC7 reported. The order holds until the case's next hearing, set for Oct. 30. Within a day, Chicago police also searched a cremation business in Glenwood, Ill., tied to the same family, carrying dozens of boxes out.
Nine of the 56 people found at the chapel have not been identified, CBS News Chicago reported. The lawsuit, Case No. 20261401023 in the Circuit Court of Cook County, names Midwest Group of Illinois LLC, 2939 E 95th Street LLC, Clark Morgan, Johanna Morgan and South Chicago Chapel Inc. It alleges 23 building code violations and seeks $11,500 per day in fines, after 56 decomposing bodies were found at the address on Aug. 6. Obitley reported on the suit in September.
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By the Numbers
The injunction
Johanna and Clark Morgan did not appear in person at the Sept. 24 hearing. Their attorneys appeared via Zoom, alongside an attorney for the city, a Department of Buildings inspector and the buildings commissioner, per ABC7.
A preliminary injunction is a judge's temporary order that holds while a case proceeds. This one bars the 2939 E. 95th St. property from being leased, used or occupied, and it stays in effect until the Oct. 30 hearing. The judge also granted the city's requested inspection, sought "to determine whether the property remains vacant and safe."
The Glenwood search
Chicago police spent hours at Planet Green Cremations in Glenwood. Officers carried dozens of boxes out and loaded them into unmarked vehicles, ABC7 reported. Police said Area Two detectives were "conducting a follow-up investigation."
ABC7's story, dated Sept. 24, frames the search as the same day as the hearing. NBC Chicago reported that Glenwood village officials confirmed it happened "on Friday," Sept. 25, with Glenwood police assisting.
The Illinois state comptroller's office classifies the Glenwood location as "a storefront rather than an actual crematory." Johanna Morgan owns it, per the comptroller's office. State records show Planet Green's business license has been dissolved since May, NBC Chicago reported.
One of the owners sat in a vehicle at the far end of the parking lot during the search, ABC7 reported, and drove away as a reporter approached. The outlet did not name him.
NBC Chicago reported that Charlene Sneed of Alsip doubts the March cremation of her mother, Connie Haynes-Washington, through Planet Green was genuine; the urn was heavier than expected and held what looked like rocks. A former customer, Franquella Campbell, told ABC7: "I don't understand why they haven't been here sooner. All our paperwork say this place. Her name. This place."
Where enforcement stands
The Morgans have not been criminally charged, as of NBC Chicago's Oct. 2 update. The fullest public accounting of why comes from emails CBS News Chicago obtained through records requests. In May 2025, after the comptroller's office shut down Heights Crematory, that office asked why the Morgans had not faced criminal charges. Illinois State Police then forwarded a list to the Cook County State's Attorney's office: 443 potential violations of the Crematory Regulation Act, 715 counts under the Integrity in Death Care Act and eight counts of abuse of a corpse. A spokesperson for State's Attorney Eileen O'Neill Burke's office said it "recommended that ISP continue their investigation and consider the possibility of financial crimes."
CBS News Chicago legal analyst Irv Miller said an exception in the law for licensed funeral directors may have helped the Morgans avoid charges over the remains themselves. The exposure he pointed to is financial: taking payment for a cremation or burial and not performing it can amount to theft by deception, which becomes a felony above a certain dollar amount, and funerals and cremations get expensive.
The comptroller's office has pushed the other way. Spokesperson Kim Howard said in August that the office "referred our findings and met with the Cook County state's attorney's office and [Illinois State Police] in hopes of criminal charges being filed," the Sun-Times reported. Illinois State Police say the Heights Crematory investigation continues, and Chicago police are conducting an independent investigation of the Morgans' handling of bodies at South Chicago Chapel.
On the licensing side, settlement talks are underway to revoke Johanna Morgan's funeral director's license, the Sun-Times reported Sept. 21. The Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation filed formal disciplinary charges against her in October 2025, after a visit to South Chicago Chapel that month did not identify evidence of mishandled or improperly stored remains, per the agency's statement. It did not move to suspend her license until this August, after the 56 bodies were found.
At Heights Crematory in Chicago Heights, inspectors had found bodies "stacked on top of each other" and "partially exposed," without refrigeration, before the comptroller's office closed it. Comptroller Susana Mendoza said she was already familiar with the Morgans' "egregious past practices."
The complaint calls the site "an unlicensed funeral home that has been receiving deceased human cadavers for processing" and says "none of these bodies were being 'processed.'" Those are allegations in a civil code-enforcement case.
The oversight gap
The same state office that regulates crematories also watches a much larger pool of money. The comptroller's office told Obitley in a Sept. 22 records response that it held $460.9 million in prepaid funeral trusts and audits those trusts roughly once every five years. Crematory oversight sits in that office as a quirk of state responsibilities, the Sun-Times noted: the comptroller regulates crematories in addition to its fiscal duties.
The Morgans' businesses fell between those regulators. IDFPR does not regulate crematories, and its post-Heights review covered only Morgan-affiliated locations within its own authority. The comptroller's office classifies the Glenwood site as "a storefront rather than an actual crematory," and Planet Green's state business registration has been dissolved since May, NBC Chicago reported.
That changes Jan. 1, 2027. A law Mendoza pushed after the Heights case lets her office summarily suspend a crematory license without a prior hearing, inspect a site immediately after a complaint and fine violators up to $10,000 per violation. State Rep. Diane Blair-Sherlock, a Villa Park Democrat who co-sponsored that law, told the Sun-Times the state should consider consolidating funeral homes, crematories and licensing under a single authority. No such bill has been filed.
What comes next
The inspection is set for Oct. 23, from 10 to 11 a.m. The city has requested that the Morgans be present, per ABC7. The next hearing is Oct. 30 at 9:30 a.m., and the injunction runs until then.
What This Means for You
*Sources: ABC7 Chicago (Sept. 24, 2026, and live-updates page); CBS News Chicago reporting on why no charges have been filed, including emails obtained through records requests and the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation's statement (accessed Oct. 5, 2026); Chicago Sun-Times explainer and settlement-talks reporting (September 2026); WTTW (Sept. 1, 2026); NBC Chicago (Sept. 29, 2026, updated Oct. 2, 2026); Illinois comptroller's office records response to Obitley (Sept. 22, 2026); the city's filed complaint in City of Chicago v. Midwest Group of Illinois LLC et al., No. 20261401023, hosted by WTTW. Prior Obitley coverage: "Chicago sues South Chicago Chapel, $11,500 a day" (Sept. 3, 2026).*
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