Kriti Mehrotra
Directed and produced by Joshua Rofé, HBO Max’s ‘The Mortician’ is a documentary series that gives us a complete insight into a case that left the world baffled back in the 1980s. It revolves around Lamb Funeral Home, a once-renowned business in Pasadena, California, that began crumbling apart soon after David Sconce took over its cremations operation. That’s because the practices he chose to adhere to were immoral and inhumane at best, with his parents reportedly also being involved in some aspects to maximize their profits in this business of death.
Laurieanne and Jerry Sconce Were Allegedly Aware of Their Son’s Practices
Born in the 1930s to rather well-known families in California, Jerry Sconce and Laurieanne Lamb led incredibly joyful lives before they met, fell head over heels in love, and tied the knot. While the former was a football star throughout his school and college before evolving into a coach/educator, the latter was the granddaughter of a pillar of society, Charles Lamb. He was the one who had established Lamb Funeral Home in the 1920s, only for it to be inherited by his son Lawrence Lamb as the years passed by, with them making it the best-reputed mortuary.
It was in the 1970s that Laurieanne decided to take over the business upon noticing that her father was growing older, just to invite her elder son to the job too. By this point, her and Jerry’s two sons, David and Gary, had already grown up and become rather desensitized to death, considering they had been in and out of the funeral home ever since they were mere kids. In fact, David has since conceded that he was 12 when he learned to embalm a body from an employee, but since he was not really interested in the counseling side of the business, he decided to focus on cremations.
When David took over this field for the funeral home, his idea was to provide cheap services to individuals and other mortuaries alike, which he did by cremating multiple bodies at one time. In fact, before he took over in 1981, they did less than 195 cremations a year, but after he joined, they jumped to over 1,500 in 1982 and over 25,280 in 1986, that is, until he was apprehended. The truth is, apart from multiple cremations, he was reportedly also involved in other immoral practices, which his parents never really publicly discussed. However, they did indicate they knew about it because during David’s wedding day with Barbara Hunt, Jerry had asked her if she really wanted to go forward with it.
Laurieanne and Jerry Sconce Were Also Involved in Some Illicit Activities
It was in early 1987 when David’s operations came to a close as neighbors of his illegal warehouse in Hesperia reported strange smoke and smell coming from his property at all hours of the day. That’s when it was uncovered that he was now cremating close to 200 bodies at once in a kiln, after his original 2-oven crematorium had accidentally burned down in November 1986. This led to a full-fledged investigation into Lamb Funeral Home, which shattered the reputation the family had worked so hard to maintain until this point – six decades of efforts came apart in mere months.
In the end, David, Laurieanne, and Jerry were all apprehended on charges related to multiple cremations as well as commingling of remains, but the couple’s case was soon separated from their son’s. The prosecutors were certain they had more than enough evidence against the then-32-year-old, but the situation was much different for his parents owing to a lack of concrete evidence. Therefore, they were released on a $5,000 bond not long after, whereas David was held in county jail on a $50,000 bail, that is, until he ultimately chose to plead guilty to a total of 21 related counts.
In 1992, Laurieanne and Jerry were acquitted in relation to the accusations concerning multiple cremations and commingling of remains, but they faced trial on different charges again three years later. This time around, they were convicted on ten counts of forging donor consent forms, removing body parts/organs of the dead to sell to organ banks or research centers (black market trafficking), removing gold dental fillings, and selling funds from trust accounts. For this, they were sentenced to three years and eight months in prison, followed by probation, which they served in full.
While Laurieanne Leads a Quiet Life Today, Jerry Sconce Has Since Sadly Passed Away
Following Laurieanne and Jerry’s release from state custody as well as supervision, they reportedly relocated to Lake Havasu City, Arizona, alongside the majority of the rest of their family. They were actually David and Barbara’s next-door neighbors for a while, too, but as time passed by and their son kept on getting involved in even more unrelated legal troubles, they distanced themselves from him. In fact, as per their elder son’s own account in the aforementioned show, he hadn’t spoken to his parents for a while when he was told by a friend that his father had unfortunately died.
Jerry Wayne Sconce passed away at the age of 85 on January 28, 2019. The cause of his death has never been made public, but considering his age at the time, we do believe it was most likely natural. David has since asserted that he wishes he were there with his father in his last moments, but he was in prison serving a 10-year term for violating his probation by having a gun in his possession. Coming to his mother, now in her late 80s, she prefers to lead a quiet life in North Fork, California, hoping to move on from the past while keeping the memories of her late husband alive in her heart. She reportedly hasn’t spoken to David since Jerry’s demise, and she also did not agree to be a part of ‘The Mortician’ because she simply wants that chapter of her life to be closed for good.
Read More: Andre Augustine: Where is David Sconce’s Ex-Employee Now?
