Kriti Mehrotra
With HBO’s ‘The Mortician’ delving deep into the business of death as well as one’s layered relationship with grief and loss, we get a documentary series that can only be described as baffling. That’s because it actually centers around David Sconce, a former Mortician and conflicted felon who has spent many years behind bars for his inhumane practices in cremation. His victims are in the range of 20,000 individuals in the brief 4 years that he was active from 1982 to 1986, but despite everything, he appears to show no remorse for any of his actions.
David Sconce Initially Dreamt of Pursuing a Career in Football
Born on March 27, 1956, in Santa Barbara, California, to Laurieanne Lamb Sconce and Jerry Sconce, as the elder of their two sons, David Sconce admittedly grew up in a very cozy environment. Since his maternal great-grandfather had established one of the most renowned mortuaries in Pasadena, aptly named Lamb Funeral Home, only for it to be passed down to his grandfather and then his mother, the family really embraced the lucrative business. Therefore, he spent most of his childhood surrounded by death, resulting in him developing a rather cavalier perspective on the same.
Yet, David admittedly also didn’t think much about it since he had already found his passion in sports. With his father being a football athlete turned PE teacher, he was dedicated to being an athlete too. In fact, he dedicated every bit of his free time to football and his health to ensure he could be the best player he could be, that is, until an injury turned everything upside down. According to his own accounts, he accidentally stepped into a golf hole one day while playing, and it tore up his knee to such an extent that his athletic career ended before it even began.
That’s when David’s parents suggested that he undertake the mortuary course at Cypress College to earn his certification and join the family business, which he agreed to after a bit of hesitation. After all, he never wanted to dabble in the customer service of the family counseling side of it. Little did he know that his networking during classes would help him realize that there is a huge market in cremation that his family’s business wasn’t utilizing or tapping into in the way it deserved. Therefore, in 1981, he took over the business and primarily handled all their cremations, going as far as to collaborate with other mortuaries across California to cremate the bodies they had.
David Sconce Went Down the Wrong Path in His Desire to Have the Largest Cremation Business
While most businesses charged between $250 and $400 for a cremation in the early 1980s, David offered it for just $55. After all, performing this final rite at the two-oven Pasadena Crematorium owned by Lamb Funeral Home cost him less than $11: $5 for the cardboard case they were put in, along with a few dollars each for diesel used in the oven and in transporting the body. However, the reason Lamb’s cremation business skyrocketed as soon as David took over had to do with the way he was doing it, too.
According to David’s own account in the show, it took around two hours to cremate an individual in their entirety in an oven, so in an 8-hour work day with 2 ovens, he was limited to 8 bodies a day. So, instead of just putting in one individual at a time, he put in as many as possible while doing everything he could to make them fit, including breaking bones or dismembering them. “I could cremate one guy in two hours, or you could put 10 of them in there and take two and a half hours,” he said, with one of his former employees later adding that he once put in 15.
In 1981, before David took over, Lamb Funeral Home handled 194 cremations a year. By 1982, that number rose to 1,675, and by 1986, it reached nearly 25,000. What’s shocking is that during this period, David reportedly also stole from the bodies; whether it be their clothes, shoes, jewelry, or gold teeth, he allegedly stole it all before pawning it to make additional money. Even when his crematorium accidentally burned down in November 1983, he didn’t stop; instead, he moved his business to San Bernardino County. He claimed to run a ceramics shop, but in reality, he used the kilns to burn hundreds of bodies at a time without proper certification or equipment. It was the decaying smell and the smoke that made people nearby suspicious, resulting in them calling the police.
After Years Behind Bars on Various Charges, David Sconce is Now a Free Man
David Sconce was arrested in 1986 following a thorough investigation, which also implicated his parents in knowingly aiding his practices, yet he maintained they had no involvement. Therefore, while the latter were granted a $5,000 bail, he was held in county jail on 26 different charges on a $500,000 bail because he was considered not just the mastermind behind the operations but also a flight risk. The fact that there were 20,000 victims who felt cheated by his practices also played a significant role in this, but not long after, around 20 charges against him were dismissed. In 1989, he pleaded guilty to the remaining six counts, including mutilating corpses, holding mass cremations to increase his profits, stealing items off corpses, and hiring men to beat up rival morticians.
David was subsequently sentenced to 5 years in prison with the possibility of parole, following which he would have to be on lifetime probation. He was granted release after just two and a half years but was later accused of involvement in the murder of a rival, Tim Walters. The mortician had died at the age of 24 after claiming that he was onto David’s criminal actions, so it was suspected that the latter had poisoned him during a lunch meeting. Yet, not only has David consistently denied ever meeting Tim, but there was also no clear evidence for the same, so the indictment against him for conspiracy to commit murder was dismissed.
David later moved to Arizona, hoping for a fresh start, but he couldn’t leave his criminal ways behind. He was apprehended in the mid-1990s for being involved in a bus coupon scandal while serving as a bus driver, not long after which he was also arrested for other financial crimes. Then, he was found to be in possession of a gun, which was a violation of his lifetime probation, so in 2013, he was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. David was granted early release on probation in 2023, and since then, he has been leading a quiet life well away from the limelight and doing his best to lead a comfortable life, especially since he is now 68.
However, it’s imperative to note that David doesn’t appear remorseful for his actions. In the documentary, he rather cavalierly said, “I don’t put any value on anybody after they’re gone and dead. As they shouldn’t when I’m gone and dead. Love ‘em when they’re here… [After they are dead, their body is] not your loved one anymore.” He even went as far as to add that while he does regret not getting the proper certifications to continue his business after his original crematorium burned down, he does not regret burning many bodies at once and would have actually continued doing so if he hadn’t been caught. Moreover, in the documentary, he said there were three incidents he can’t discuss because it would be too bad for him, allegedly indicating possible additional criminality.
Read More: Andre Augustine: Where is David Sconce’s Ex-Employee Now?
