The Mortician

And that's how he died.

But that was not the only death

that people were talking about.

Also, there was Ron Jordan.

Back in '85, Ron Jordan

worked for Dave Sconce.

I knew Ron, I knew the whole family, his family.

He transported bodies to the crematory to be cremated.

He saw what Dave is doing.

Ron decided, "I don't wanna have anything to do with it.

I'm quitting. I'm done."

But he was scared of Dave Sconce.

So, he told Dave, "Listen, you have nothing to worry about it.

I know nothing, I saw nothing."

He was looking forward for the next phase of his life.

He was a handsome guy, he had a gorgeous girlfriend.

Young, educated.

He wanted to be a fireman.

Two weeks later, we hear that Ron was found hanging.

He committed suicide.

Coroner came in, did an investigation.

Not enough evidence to blame anyone other than hearsay,

but we all had no doubts that he didn't do that to himself.

Everyone knew Ron, everyone knew Dave,

everyone knew the business, said that cannot happen.

There's no proof, of course,

but a couple weeks before, Ron...

he mentioned it, not realizing that it's gonna come true.

You know, "If anything happens to me, just look for Dave."

Certain people said

that I killed Ron Jordan, who I-- okay.

Somehow, I had done something to him.

I remember Ron was clean-cut.

He was a good employee, he was a hard worker.

I-- I later heard he was a gay guy,

but I don't care if a guy's a gay guy. Big deal.

It means I don't tie my shoes in front of him.

Okay, that's fine.

I can't think of one bad thing I ever heard about Ron.

Why would I want to kill him?

Seriously? You know.

This man has no conscience.

He deserved to be locked up for-- for life.

For life. That's where he belongs.

Good evening, I'm Ted Koppel,

and this is Nightline.

I don't even know if I've got my husband's ashes.

Let alone, I know that they mutilated him

to get the corneas, but I don't even know

that it's his ashes that I've got.

From California, a story

that sounds like a plot from a horror movie.

A ghastly tale of funeral attendants

who allegedly dismembered bodies,

secretly sold human organs.

32-year-old David Sconce and his parents,

Jerry and Laurieanne Lamb Sconce,

who own the mortuary, face trial

beginning later this year on 68 counts.

All the stories about me and my parents,

that was sensationalized to the max.

There was a bad story about me every day in the news.

The cremation business

was a goldmine for the owners of Lamb's.

It was such a gut-churning,

emotional kind of a case.

Maybe part of it was irrational.

Maybe, just maybe.

What better way to vilify a guy

than to, uh, compare him to Hitler?

Come on. The all-time bad guy.

I'm innocent of everything that I'm being accused of.

The guilt I focus on myself

might be for me not being on top of situations

as much as I should have been, simply because I was overwhelmed

with the number of things I had going.

The preliminary hearing in the Lamb Funeral Home case

was the longest preliminary hearing

in the history of Pasadena, encompassing six months--

a little more-- and 99 witnesses.

It was a number of counts, a litany of 'em.

Most were for the mortuary.

A couple of 'em in there dealt with robbery and assault.

Maybe 80% of 'em were misdemeanors.

You know, it just seemed like it would never end.

We're charging, uh, 26 counts

of taking, uh, brains, hearts, and lungs

from cadavers without the permission

from the next of kin.

Walt Lewis, the district attorney...

he kept bringing in witness after witness after witness.

So, I did it, but I didn't want to,

'cause I knew he was in a lot of trouble.

You know, he was getting ready to take the blunt

of whatever it was going on, it was gonna be his fault.

When they put Danny Galambos on the stand,

this big, hulking, huge guy...

Walt Lewis, "Are you scared of David Sconce?"

And Daniel Galambos goes, "Oh, yeah.

Oh, uh, he used to be almost as big as me."

And I'm thinking, wow.

I couldn't laugh in the courtroom,

but I wanted to. I wanted to.

All these former employees testified against me

because it was "Testify against David,

or you're going to jail." That's what it was.

So, none of those guys went to jail.

None of 'em did.

I gave my testimony.

I had to do it.

And it was partially to kinda clean my slate a little bit.

And I said, David Sconce was a-- a dark, bad guy.

They would ask me questions.

Uh, David Sconce always sat by his dad,

you know, and Laurieanne.

They're all three looking at me, you know.

Every one of 'em.

Evil eyes and just-- their eyes were right at you.

It was kinda scary.

I always wondered if they would do anything to hurt me

for testifying against them.

Shoot me on the freeway or something, you know.

Break into my home and stab me or something.

But I-- I felt, uh, relieved in a way

that, uh, I'm gonna be able to tell the-- the truth,

you know, 'cause this is not right, this is inhumane.

And-- and when I went to court, I was thinking of the families,

'cause some of the family members were there

at the courthouse.

When it came time to testify...

my lawyer, he said, "Now, are you ready,

and are you calm?"

I said, "Oh, yes, I'm very calm."

What I want to do is jump over the table

and grab him by the throat and shake him till he's dead.

When I was testifying in court,

I was walking in the halls, and I saw

David Sconce with his attorney.

Heard him say to his attorney,

"I didn't do it, my guys did it."

Well, I was livid. It was all I could do

not to choke him right then and there.

In this particular case,

uh, we deny-- my client denies having engaged

in either one of those two practices,

either multiple cremations or commingling of the ashes.

I mean, he's not saying he had permission.

He's just saying that he never did it.

Right.

I-- I only had one experience

going to a courthouse, with my sister,

for, I believe it was a preliminary trial,

and the lawyers for the Lamb Funeral Home

were-- were really vicious with her.

"Well, you read the contract, and why are you saying this?"

And you know, really, really adversarial to her.

The, uh, the body parts, the-- were removed,

but with the consent of the next of kin.

We have forms that the next of kin signed.

They were very belligerent and battering,

and it was this head-butting kind of situation.

Are you kidding me? It was just unbelievable.

David was in jail.

And everybody kept telling me, "Don't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. He'll be out, he'll come out."

Things were getting worse-- his trial.

Uh, I-- I was running out of money.

And I-- I was a stay-at-home mom.

So, I asked my in-laws, Laurieanne and Jerry Sconce,

for a little help.

And they said, "Well, you need to go on welfare."

Nobody wanted to hear me.

It was all about David...

and getting money for attorneys and trying to get him out.

David was on the news every single night.

I couldn't get away from it.

And I didn't know 90% of what was going on

until I was hearing it on the news.

I was devastated.

It's hard because you fall in love with a family,

and you wanna support, you wanna believe.

Sitting through the trial is when I thought...

Who is this? Who did I marry?

David had so many felonies.

I kept thinking, this is not David.

David couldn't do this.

Father of your kids, you want them to be innocent.

So, when they started talking about murder...

I did-- I didn't believe it.

I didn't think that he was capable.