Funeral director arrested

Joseph Wilturner, owner of Wilturner Funeral Home in Crowley, was arrested last week and charged with felony theft.
Wilturner, whose funeral home was raided in late February, was being investigated for the past several months by the Crowley Police Department, according to Police Chief K.P. Gibson.
“The Crowley Police served an arrest warrant for felony theft regarding an investigation which has been ongoing for the last several months,” said Gibson. “On March 30, our officers located and arrested Joseph Wilturner Jr., 45, of Crowley, on the warrant.”
The warrant stems from an investigation into the burial of an individual where monies, which were not used for funeral expenses, should have been returned to the deceased persons family but were not, according to the chief.
Numerous requests were made by the family to have the difference returned prior to the investigation, Gibson said.
“This investigation does not have any ties to the matter which the Acadia Parish Corners Office handled last month,” stated Gibson.
Wilturner bonded out last Wednesday.
In the matter involving the Acadia Coroner’s Office, the Crowley Police Department was contacted in February by families that had failed to get the cremated remains of their family members since December.
Acadia Parish Coroner Dr. Mark Dawson said that he had been contacted by the state Embalming Board about a month before the police were contacted concerning one of the bodies.
“They asked if I had signed a cremation order,” he said.
Such an order from the parish coroner is required for all cremations. Dawson said he had signed no such order.
After family members were questioned, and signed affidavits, a search order was signed by District Judge John Trahan.
“We went in and found two bodies that had been there for months,” said Dawson.
When family members of one of the deceased, a young man from Rayne, tried to enter the funeral home, they were turned away by Wilturner.
Dawson described the case as “a first for me.”
“Those bodies had been in there for nearly three months,” he said at the time. “There was no refrigerated storage facility in the building, all they had was an air conditioner in the room. It becomes a public health issue and that’s what gives the coroner the right to do this.”
At the time, Wilturner said that the family had not paid their bills and had not contacted him in months.
The Post-Signal attempted to contact Wilturner on Monday but he did not return calls.