EXCLUSIVE

By Freya Coombes

 

HAUNTING PHOTOS reveal a long-abandoned rogue funeral home that lost its licence three decades ago after snatching a body and even mixing human and animal remains.

Following the exploration of a town in Pennsylvania, photographer and paranormal investigator Chelsey Lacelle  (25) discovered this abandoned site and the haunting history behind it.

In one image, chairs are lined up in front of a coffin, awaiting a funeral service. The coffin is laden with fake flowers and an untouched polaroid atop the lid and chairs contain orders of service and information about the deceased.

Chairs were found set up and containing orders of service with details of the deceased.

“This place had been sitting abandoned for the last thirty years,” said Chelsey.

“This funeral home was a small business run by one undertaker who skipped out of town after not paying his bills on the property and losing his licence for the funeral home.

“He lost his licence because he had a body that was decomposing in his garage at the funeral home and had not properly taken care of the body.

“It’s said that when this was reported, he left in a van and was gone, along with that body.

“He tried to bury that body, but was rejected because the death certificate was not signed.

“He had also left behind at least twenty remains of humans and pets. He even admitted that sometimes he would mix the animal and human remains.”

In another grizzly image, captured on a Canon R camera, embalming fluids are left set out on a workbench.

Embalming fluids and tools were left out.

The property was also littered with tools, papers, and beauty products for dressing up the bodies for viewings. Among the abandoned documents were orders of service and coffin catalogues.

Documents were littered everywhere.

In one photograph, pictures of families have received irreversible damage, as well as water damage to other exposed documents.

The outside of the funeral home was obscured from view, with a large tree and several weeds covering the exterior of the building.

The outside of the funeral home was obscured from view on all but one side.

To find sites like this, Chelsey undergoes hours of research, delving into their history as well as exploring quiet places.

“You are driving around and your drive in the back areas to find places like these,” said Chelsey.

“sometimes it can be a forty minute drive and other times it’s a twenty-plus hours type of drive.

“I grew up on horror movies and I was just drawn to the unknown – this is a side of the world that not a whole bunch of people get to experience on a day to day basis,

“My photos aren’t for everyone, they hold a moody and creepy aspect to them, but they also show the beauty and the history of forgotten places.”

ENDS