U.S. Navy veteran Robert Heiskell died alone in his home in 2017. A concerned neighbor notified authorities and, with no will and no one to claim his body, it was turned over to an Arizona funeral home, Abel Funeral Services. 

The funeral home director failed to find Heiskell’s next of kin and so he got court approval to take over the estate, settle his affairs and, of course, pay for his own funeral and burial. In the end, the funeral home paid itself more than $30,000 in costs. The average funeral and burial costs $7,360. 

The Arizona Republic’s Anne Ryman wrote about this recently, and The Show asked her how it was allowed.

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