Prosecutors say Michael Naughton kept working after his funeral director license was revoked and left 13 bodies and 17 boxes of cremated remains inside Camelot Funeral Home.
MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. — New York prosecutors have unsealed a 20-count indictment against Michael Naughton, alleging he ran funeral services without a license at Camelot Funeral Home and defrauded grieving families after inspectors found decomposing bodies and cremated remains inside the building in January.
The case has become one of the most disturbing funeral-home prosecutions in New York in recent years because it joins two tracks at once: the handling of human remains and the money families paid while mourning. Attorney General Letitia James said Naughton, 55, of Baldwin, continued acting as a funeral director after his license was revoked in 2019. The indictment says that between at least May 2025 and January 2026, he took on funeral work he was not allowed to perform, while state inspectors later found 13 bodies in various states of decomposition and 17 boxes of cremated remains at the Mount Vernon facility.
The public timeline begins years before the indictment. State records cited by prosecutors say Naughton’s funeral director license was revoked in 2019, making it illegal for him to practice funeral directing in New York. Even so, the attorney general’s office says he kept operating through Camelot Funeral Home on Stevens Avenue in Mount Vernon. The turning point came on Jan. 30, 2026, when personnel from the state Department of Health’s Bureau of Funeral Directing made an unannounced inspection of the building. Prosecutors say inspectors found bodies stored in several parts of the property, including six in the chapels and three in a detached garage. Two of the bodies in the garage were stacked on top of one another, according to the state. Inspectors also recovered 17 boxes of cremated remains from the basement. That same discovery led Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald to issue an emergency order shutting Camelot down and directing the business to turn over records and cooperate with authorities.
The indictment unsealed April 1 in Westchester County Court before Judge Melissa A. Loehr lays out the criminal case in broader detail. Prosecutors say Naughton negotiated prices, signed contracts, arranged transportation for decedents, oversaw funeral services and handled bodily and cremated remains even though he no longer had a valid license. The attorney general’s office also accuses him of forging a burial transit permit, a document required for the transfer of a body for burial or other disposition. The 20 counts include three counts of third-degree grand larceny, five counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, one count of attempted third-degree grand larceny, one count of criminal possession of a forged instrument, one count of first-degree scheme to defraud and nine counts of unlicensed practice of funeral directing. Prosecutors say the alleged fraud took thousands of dollars from families. They have not publicly identified every family named in the charges, and Naughton is presumed innocent unless the case is proved in court.
The case had already shaken families in February, before the felony indictment was announced this week. Local television reporting at the time described one family’s account after the death of 74-year-old Estella Washington. Her daughter, Aloma Washington, said Camelot handled memorial services for her mother in late November and that the family expected cremated remains days later but never received them. After the state inspection, Washington learned her mother’s body was allegedly among those still inside the funeral home. She told reporters there had been no outward sign that anything was wrong when the family made arrangements. Earlier coverage also reported that investigators did not find a death certificate for any of the bodies at the site during the initial inspection. The attorney general’s office has not said in this week’s release how many of the 13 bodies and 17 boxes of remains have now been matched to relatives, but it said officials have been working with the Westchester County Medical Examiner’s Office since Jan. 30 to identify and return remains to families.
Mount Vernon officials have framed the case as both a criminal matter and a betrayal of basic trust. Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said families were taken advantage of at the moment they were most vulnerable and said the city would support the prosecution. Westchester County Executive Ken Jenkins said county medical examiner staff have been working to identify the recovered remains and return them with dignity. District Attorney Susan Cacace called the allegations appalling and said residents have a right to expect that the remains of loved ones will be treated properly. Those statements reflect the larger harm alleged in the case. Funeral homes occupy a rare place in public life because families often meet them during a crisis and must rely on them for paperwork, transportation, ceremonies and final disposition. Prosecutors are saying that, in Camelot’s case, that trust was abused over months while the business continued to receive paying customers.
The legal posture is clearer now than the practical one for many families. The indictment says the alleged conduct spanned from at least May 27, 2025, into late January 2026. If Naughton is convicted on the most serious charge, he faces up to seven years in prison, according to the attorney general’s office. The state has not announced a trial date in public statements released this week, and it has not said whether additional defendants could be charged. Officials also have not publicly explained how Camelot continued operating for so long after the 2019 license revocation, beyond saying the facility performed funeral work for dozens of decedents. Another important unknown is the full number of affected families. While earlier reporting said the facility conducted more than 20 funerals after August, prosecutors in the indictment describe a broader scheme involving dozens of decedents. For now, the criminal case will move through Westchester County Court while state and county officials continue the separate task of sorting records, identifying remains and contacting relatives.
The scene described by investigators has stayed at the center of public reaction. A funeral home is supposed to be orderly and quiet, built around ritual and care. The state instead described bodies in chapels, bodies in a detached garage and cremated remains boxed in a basement. James said in a statement that planning a funeral is one of the most difficult moments in a person’s life and accused Naughton of taking advantage of New Yorkers while failing to care properly for the remains in his possession. McDonald said the case shows why only licensed funeral directors should be trusted with that work. Outside the courtroom, the fallout has been personal and immediate. Families have had to revisit deaths they thought had already been laid to rest. County and state officials have had to identify remains, review records and try to restore some order after the emergency closure. The attorney general’s office has also asked anyone who believes they were affected to contact investigators, a sign that authorities still expect more families may come forward.
As of Thursday, Naughton had been indicted but not convicted, Camelot had been shut down by emergency order, and officials were still working to identify and return remains recovered on Jan. 30. The next milestone is expected to come in court or in updates to families as prosecutors and medical examiners continue the case.
Author note: Last updated April 2, 2026.