Where is David Sconce now? Details explored ahead of The Mortician on HBO

In the 1980s, due to David Sconce's criminal actions, the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California, once a respected family business, became notorious. The HBO docuseries The Mortician, premiering June 1, 2025, delves into this scandal, revealing how Sconce’s greed led to mass cremations, organ theft, and violence.

Directed by Joshua Rofé, the three-part series features an exclusive interview with Sconce, now released from prison, alongside victims’ families and former employees.

It examines the mortuary industry’s hidden practices, showing how Sconce exploited grieving families. As of 2025, David Sconce, aged 68, is out of prison after a 2023 parole release, living privately in California. His current whereabouts are not publicly detailed.

The series airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and streams on Max, with episodes on June 1, 8, and 15. The official synopsis of the documentary reads:

A darkly gripping series, THE MORTICIAN chronicles a trusted family-owned funeral home that hid behind a façade of decency and propriety to take advantage of loved ones at their most vulnerable moments. In the early 1980s, David Sconce, scion of the Lamb family, took over the family business and sought to exploit the deceased in numerous ways to expand their earnings. Driven by profit, the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California engaged in years of morally questionable and inhumane practices.

---

Who was David Sconce and where is he now?

Still from the series The Mortician (Image via HBO)

Born on March 27, 1956, David Wayne Sconce was the son of the Lamb family, who ran the Pasadena-based Lamb Funeral Home. After dropping out of Azusa Pacific University, he earned an embalmer’s license and managed the Pasadena Crematorium by 1982.

As reported by People, his ambition drove him to offer $55 cremations through Coastal Cremations, Inc., handling 8,000 bodies yearly by 1985. His illegal practices, including forging organ donor consents and assault, led to his 1989 conviction on 21 counts, serving 2.5 years of a five-year sentence.

Further crimes, including a 1994 scam and a 2012 rifle theft, violated his lifetime probation, resulting in a 25-year-to-life sentence in 2013. Released on parole in 2023, Sconce, now 68, resides in California, though his exact location is undisclosed. He has kept a low profile, with no public statements beyond his The Mortician interview, where he discusses his actions.

---

The story behind the Lamb Funeral Home case

As reported by People, in 1987, a fire inspector’s investigation in Hesperia, California, uncovered David Sconce’s horrific practices at the Lamb Funeral Home’s crematorium.

Starting in 1982, Sconce performed mass cremations, overloading furnaces with up to 19 bodies, mixing ashes, and distributing them inaccurately. He extracted gold teeth, selling them for $5,000–$6,000 monthly, and sold 136 brains, 145 hearts, and 100 lungs to medical schools over three months, often forging consents.

A 1986 fire, caused by human fat, destroyed the Pasadena facility, leading David Sconce to use an unlicensed Hesperia kiln. He intimidated rivals, allegedly assaulting three morticians, and was linked to a rival’s death in 1985, though unproven, as per the Los Angeles Times.

Arrested in 1987, Sconce faced 67 charges, pleading guilty to 21 in 1989. A $15.5 million lawsuit in 1992 compensated 20,000 families, as per the San Gabriel Valley Tribune's reporting.

The scandal prompted California’s 1988 crematory regulation law. His parents, Laurieanne and Jerry, faced trials but were largely acquitted, retiring penniless in Arizona.

---

Watch The Mortician releasing on June 1, 2025, on HBO.