A house of horrors, gross biohazard violations, and psychological torture of a grieving family."
If you want to experience total administrative abandonment, financial extortion, and profound cruelty while trying to lay a loved one to rest, Sterling & Smith Funeral Directors in Tulare is the exact place to go.
UNLESS YOU GIVE THE FAMILY A REFUND AS THEY DESERVE I WILL NOT CONSIDER UPDATING MY REVIEW PERIOD.
IF YOU CALL THE FAMILY AND GIVE THEM A REFUND I WILL FIX MY REVIEW BUT UNTIL THEN LET ME TELL THE VERY HARSH UGLY TRUTH HERE...
ADVISORY (TW) Possible trigger warring:
There is evidence of remains mishandling, dead rodent droppings on the body, a melted glass jar between the body's thighs MELTED into the skin, with dead maggots, evidence they may be experimenting with human remains... and even pressured the family saying "BURN THE BODY ALREADY" etc don't read on if you've got a weak stomach.
THE nightmare with this facility involved a litany of unspeakable violations:
* Retaliation and Biohazard Exposure: The decedent's brother was forced to wait over a month just to view his brother's body, only to be subjected to retaliatory hostility and interrogation-room intimidation. When they were finally allowed back, they were offered zero Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and handed a mask only upon asking.
* Unsecured Public Viewing & Mutilated Remains: The body was wheeled into an unsecured, regular public waiting room accessible to anyone AND EXPOSED TO THE REGULAR WAITING AREA WHERE YOU YOURSELF WOULD SIT TO WAIT. The physical condition of the remains was horrific and defied basic science--the top half was decomposed beyond belief while the bottom half was remarkably preserved, raising terrifying questions about improper preservation, experimental handling, or an active identity swap.
* Foreign Debris and Pest Infestation: Most abhorrently, the body was found with a melted jar wedged between its legs, alongside maggots and rodent droppings.
* Financial Extortion & Forensic Deception: After local law enforcement neglected their statutory duty to collect DNA, the grieving family was forced to pay out-of-pocket costs. Worse, the facility tech Tania Hill engaged in a malicious bait-and-switch: promising that fingernails had been sent for testing, then ignoring any further communication with the family. Only for the lab to reveal later that they Sterling & Smith / Tania Hill had sent bones instead-- HOW DO YOU MISTAKE BONES FOR FINGERNAILS? THESE PEOPLE ARE SICK- EVIL MONSTERS - leaving the family to be mocked via text message ("lol") and cruelly pressured and they tried to extort the family for 3K extra to fix Tania Hills "fingernail" collection & complete chain-of-custody failures. NOT ACCEPTABLE PERIOD.
From blocking valid 50-50 authorization proxies to subjecting a grieving mother to text-message mockery and psychological abuse, this facility operates with zero human decency, zero regulatory compliance, and a complete disregard for the dignity of the dead.
Avoid at all costs.
Case and regulatory files are active with the Cemetery and Funeral Bureau (Complaint #262700212) and federal oversight.
If you have a problem to report them to the CFB immediately.
Oh, and after I filled a complaint... not only did the person I filled the complain about to corporate intercept my email... and replied himself to avoid upper command staff to see his unethical behavior but then he got his personal lawyer and tried to bully me in email with a bluff... (when I called him on his bluff he finally stopped emailing and then literally he started calling me around 2-3am blowing my phone up... ) Yeah if you're reading this Scott Shade, you know excatly what you did and continue to do, you're a disgrace and this facility is a debauchery.
If they've done all this with a body...
What else have they been doing with bodies?
I have a hard time believing no body else has had trouble with this place... read more