BATAVIA, N.Y. — A Batavia funeral director is charged with holding onto a body for nearly nine months, while filing paperwork saying that the deceased person had been buried.
An investigation revealed that Michael Tomaszewski, director of the Michael S. Tomaszewski Funeral and Cremation Chapel, LLC, allegedly harbored a body for 264 days from April 2018 to January 2019. The Genesee County Sheriff's and District Attorney's Office, along with the Genesee and Monroe County medical examiners, started looking into the matter when the family of the deceased inquired as to the whereabouts of their family member's remains.
New York State Public Health Law 4200 calls for a deceased person to be buried within a reasonable time period. Tomaszewski allegedly filed a death certificate claiming the deceased had been buried at a specific cemetery on a specific date, which in fact, they were not. He's facing charges of violating the Public Health Law and offering a false instrument for filing.
The funeral director was issued appearance tickets for both charges.
The deceased person has since been given a proper burial.
