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Woman in financial fight with shuttered Whitehall funeral home

Posted at 8:18 PM, Sep 19, 2017
and last updated 2017-09-19 20:18:34-04

WHITEHALL, Mich. -- Beverly Rogers says she was just trying to be responsible, prepaying for her funeral so her family wouldn't be left with the burden.

However, the 80-year-old says dealing with a West Michigan funeral home backfired. Thomas Clock, owner of the now closed Clock Funeral Home in Whitehall, started accepting payments in 2010.

"I told him what I wanted, he put it down," Rogers told FOX 17.

But she stopped making those payments in 2016 when her family saw Clock on the news.

Last year Clock was charged with mishandling human remains, among other charges, after a body was found in a van at his funeral home.  Another family found their baby's urn was empty. He was sentenced to 8 months in jail.

Rogers says that as a result of that investigation, Clock allegedly mismanaged her money.  A third-party conservator, an attorney, was tasked with paying them back, but she received just under $1,300 of the nearly $3,200 she spent.

"The funeral home has been closed," Clock told FOX 17.  "Beverly Rogers has been paid everything she was owed, and we have been through this for over two years.  The funeral home has been closed.  So I don't have the records. The funeral home... I don't know if the funeral home has the records."

Clock says he's paid back everything Rogers spent, but she says she has receipts to prove otherwise.  He told FOX 17 that Rogers now needs to deal with the conservator.  Rogers says the conservator has stopped responding.

"Well, I'd hope that he'd get something straight and send me what I'm supposed to have," Rogers said. "That's what I would like. Then I could put towards another funeral home."

FOX 17 reached out to the conservator, and we're waiting for a reply.

Note: There is a Clock Funeral Home in Muskegon and one in Grand Haven. Those are not associated with Thomas Clock or this case.