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Funeral director sentenced after giving woman wrong remains

By Liz Foster
By Liz Foster

RICHMOND COUNTY, N.C. — A former Richmond county funeral director won’t spend a day in prison after he took money from mourning families then handed them the wrong cremated remains.

Larry Russell accepted a plea deal for felony fraud in August.

He said, "I do apologize from the bottom of my heart," at his sentencing hearing. Multiple families accused him of pocketing money meant to cremate their loved ones, and the state investigated.

"I don't see how a man or a human being could take another human being and do what he did to my mama," Debbie Bibbee said to the courtroom when given the opportunity to speak.

Russell purposely gave the family of Betsy Marsh the wrong cremated ashes after the family paid $2,400 for him to cremate her in 2013. Marsh’s daughter, Bibbee, told Channel 9 she recently learned Russell put her mother's remains in a trash bag and dumped them near a cemetery.

"I guess for me it's just heartbreaking thing that happened, but for me to forgive myself I guess I would have to forgive him for what he did," Bibbee said after the hearing.

It’s a story Channel 9 has followed since 2013. Channel 9 had the only camera in the courtroom Monday.

A judge sentenced Larry Russell to three years of probation and ordered him to pay the North Carolina Funeral Board $1,595, but he won't spend any time in prison.

Russell placed some blame on the state funeral board, saying he filed paperwork in early 2013 to renew his funeral license and thought he could practice while it was pending. He claims he told the board he had a body in the funeral home; they told him he couldn’t practice but didn’t come get the body.

Ultimately, I’m responsible for the decisions I made," Russell said to the judge and victim’s family.

Eyewitness News anchor Liz Foster tried talking to him after the hearing, but he said, “No comment."

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