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David Sconce is the owner of Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California, and the subject of HBO's docuseries The Mortician. He committed a series of crimes, including corpse mutilation and mass cremations, to earn more profits. Sconce chose unethical methods to expand his family business, including hiring strongmen to assault the competitor morticians.
Many of Sconce's customers complained about receiving the wrong remains of their loved ones, and some reported desecration of the bodies. David Sconce inherited the family funeral business and, using its trust and reputation, seemingly took advantage of the grieving families.
HBO's three-part documentary series, The Mortician, explores the full story of David Sconce. The first episode debuted on June 1, 2025, with the remaining two episodes set to release on June 8, 2025, and June 25, 2025, respectively.
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What are the crimes committed by David Sconce?
As reported by People, in 1989, David Sconce was convicted of corpse mutilation for holding mass cremations for $ 55 per body and hiring goons to assault and threaten rival mortician businesses.
He admitted to removing gold fillings by mining the corpse's teeth. As a result, he was sentenced to five years in prison. However, Sconce was released two and a half years later, in 1991.
As reported by Time, funeral home directors in the Pasadena area first became suspicious of his business when other morticians revealed that Lamb Funeral Home was offering cremation services at unusually lower prices. Reportedly, David Sconce would cremate multiple bodies in the oven at a time.
As reported by Time, the workers would squeeze in as many bodies as possible, even going so far as to crush bones. Some former workers at the Lamb Funeral Home revealed that bodies were sometimes chopped to take out the jewelry from the victims to be sold.
A former employee named Andre Augustine claimed that Lamb Funeral Home workers often got confused about which ashes to put in which box. As a result, families would receive urns filled with the remains of multiple dead people.
Sconce's crimes were caught when a former World War II soldier, who served in Auschwitz during the Holocaust, complained about the smell of burning flesh coming from the Funeral Home. He dialed 911 and reported the foul smell, stating that it was a smell he would never forget from the war.
What happened to David Sconce?
As reported by Time, it was Sconce's former wife, Barbara Hunt, who revealed that her husband was secretive about the business. She recalled an incident when she saw David sitting on the floor, cracking a gold tooth extracted from a corpse.
One individual featured in the HBO docuseries claimed that the main reason for David Sconce's downfall was his constant need to brag about everything.
As reported by People, Sconce was again convicted in 2013 for breaking his lifetime probation after committing a series of further offenses. As a result, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. He was released on parole in 2023.
In The Mortician episode 1, Sconce openly confessed that he had no regrets. Regarding the mixing of ashes, he argued that not every speck of ash in the oven could be cleaned before putting another body in. He tried justifying his actions, saying:
"Comingling of ash is not a big deal. I don’t put any value in anybody after they’re gone and dead. They shouldn’t when I’m gone and dead. That’s not a person anymore.”
Sconce stated that there is no difference between anybody's cremated ashes, further adding that people should be more in control of their emotions. As per David Sconce, the corpse was:
"Not your loved one anymore, and it never has been. Love them when they’re here. Period.”
As reported by Time, Joshua Rofé, the director of HBO's The Mortician docuseries, stated that David Sconce's primary motivation for appearing in the docuseries was the money. Rofé further stated that his purpose in creating The Mortician was not to avoid stories of people who have committed crimes.
Check out our other articles for recommendations of other documentaries on HBO.
