COLUMBUS – A man who allegedly operated an East Side business where investigators removed bodies two weeks ago has been indicted by a grand jury in Toledo on dozens of charges related to providing funeral services without a license.
A Lucas County grand jury returned indictments this week against Shawnte Hardin on 37 charges, including engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity, abuse of a corpse, fraud, representing himself as a funeral director while unlicensed, operating an unlicensed funeral home and one count of failure to refrigerate a human body, according to the office of Ohio attorney general Dave Yost.
The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation last week removed two bodies from a building at 1615 E. Livingston Avenue which authorities say Hardin, 41, was using for makeshift funeral services, Yost said.
In addition to the operation in Columbus, Yost says Hardi has operated several businesses in Lucas, Cuyahoga and Summit counties since at least 2019.
The business names included Hussain Funeral Directors, Celebration of Life Memorial Chapels, Hardin Funeral Home, Inc., American Mortuary Services and Transportation, and Shawnte Davon Hardin Services, LLC.