Sept. 10--Three bodies and "other remains" have been discovered in the garage of a home in south suburban Riverdale that belonged to a minister who worked in the funeral business, according to police and family.
Illinois State Police investigators were called to the home in the 13900 block of South Dearborn Street around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, authorities said.
"Three bodies and other remains (were) discovered in the garage," a spokesman for the Cook County medical examiner's office said. The ages and genders of the people were not immediately available.
Neighbors said they saw bodies being carried from the garage, some covered with bloodstained sheets.
The man who lived in the home was identified by his family as Anton Godfrey. He had been in the funeral business for years and had worked out of his garage, according to his father-in-law, who did not want to be named.
Godfrey died of a heart attack the end of the August and his wife decided to clean out the garage, not knowing some bodies remained. She called police after finding the first body, the father-in-law said.
"She was surprised," he said.
Godfrey ran a funeral business out of James Funeral Home at 8138 S. Cottage Grove Ave. but left about four years ago to begin working on his own.
"He was from the West Side," the father-in-law said. "A lot of people that had deaths in the family would call him."
A neighbor, Carl King, said a woman who lives at the house paid him recently to cut the grass and he said he saw four headstones near the garage.
"This was one crazy morning to wake up to," he said.
Another neighbor, Superman J. H. Horn, 69, said the deceased man once owned a neighboring house and had gravestones between the two houses. "I could understand because he was an undertaker," he said.
"My theory is he was going to bury those people and brought them home and never got around to burying them," Horn said. "That's bringing too much work home. He had to bury people. That was his job."
Ernest Wallace, who lives across the alley from the home, said his last contact with the man was about five weeks ago when he was barbecuing.
He described him as a "real neighbor."
"We talked about church all the time." Wallace said. "For a minister, he was really balanced."
But the man never said at which church he was minister. "He never pushed his church at me."
Eric Newton, who lives across the street, said the man "seemed like a quiet neighbor. He was very humble." They spoke when they saw each other, he said.
"Something like this is very disturbing and shocking," he said.
Hughson Gillette said he and another neighbor saw authorities roll a casket out of the garage.
About the family that lived in the house, Gillette said, "They were real quiet people. They seemed, I guess, normal. I didn't know what his profession was until yesterday."
DeLois Cark said she knew Godfrey professionally and said he was a contractor with several area funeral homes. She lives several blocks away and was at the scene to find out about what happened.
She said she had attended at least one funeral he was involved in and subsequently talked with him about driving her deceased brother's body back to Louisiana in July. She ultimately opted to fly the body back.
One of the tombstones on the property belonged to Anthony Bernard, a 31-year-old Chicago man who died in June 2009.
Michael Bernard, of Chicago, said his younger brother was killed during an altercation in the city. No one was ever charged, he said.
Michael Bernard said the family said goodbye to Anthony during an open-casket service, and members believed his remains were properly buried. He described Godfrey as a family friend and was startled to learn his brother's marker had never been placed at the cemetery.
"It's really upsetting," he said. "My family never got justice (for his death) and now this."
