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TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY

TEXAS RANGERS






DATE: 06/27/2014

TO: Major Brian Burzynski, Texas Rangers, Company D

FROM: Lieutenant Corey Lain, Texas Rangers, Company D

SUBJECT: Inquiry Interment of Unidentified Human Remains, Brooks County
____________________________________________________________________________________

MAJ OR BRIAN BURZYNSKI,

On 06-25-2014, I was asked to conduct a preliminary inquiry into the possibility of criminal
violations associated with the recovery, transport, storage, examination, and burial of human
remains in Brooks County. The following potential concerns at issue include:

(1) Whether there was improper billing for services or supplies by the Howard Williams
Funeral Services.
(2) If improper containers were used to store or transport human remains by Howard
Funeral Services.
(3) Why there was no documentation of any autopsies performed by Dr. Fulgencio P.
Salinas, in the form of autopsy reports, for the autopsy services billed for unidentified
human remains found in Brooks County.
(4) Why there were no actual orders for an autopsy of human remains by the presiding
justice of the peace as required by CCP 49.04.
(5) If Elizondo Mortuary charged Brooks County for refrigerated storage fees of human
remains for an unreasonable time period (30 days) at a rate of $50.00 per day.
(6) Whether Howard Williams Funeral Services buried unidentified human remains in the
Brooks County Cemetery in violation of Texas law as some human remains were:
a. buried in locations without markers or were improperly marked
b. not buried in proper containers
c. buried too close to other human remains
d. buried above/on top of other previously buried human remains
(7) Why DNA samples from unidentified human remains may not have been obtained,
and if obtained, were not submitted to the University of North Texas Center for
Human Identification for forensic DNA analysis as required by CCP 63.0056 and
63.0057.
(8) If unidentified human remains from locations in J im Hogg County were buried in the
Brooks County Cemetery.

INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM
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During the course of this inquiry, I spoke with various Brooks County officials, Brooks County
law enforcement, forensic anthropologists from the University of North Texas, the Texas Funeral
Service Commission, and representatives from the Howard Williams Funeral Home Services.
The following is a synopsis of the information I obtained reference the above listed concerns;

On 06/26/2014, I met with representatives from the Howard Williams Funeral Service at the
Falfurrias Burial Park on Travis Street in Falfurrias, Texas. I was told that Brooks County
officials were apparently overwhelmed as the condition of the Falfurrias Burial Park was below
standards and the response to the removal of human remains from private property by law
enforcement and county officials was not correct. The funeral company also stated they were
accused of charging unfair prices when they were actually losing money in the removal,
transport, and interment of unidentified bodies they handle for Brooks County. I was told that
funeral home employees, on their own initiative and out of respect for the deceased, placed
flowers and constructed plywood boxes for unidentified bodies since the County could not afford
to do so.

I reviewed three locations within the burial park where unidentified human remains were placed
by Howard Williams Funeral Service employees. I was told by the funeral service company that
they were specifically instructed by Brooks County officials on where unidentified human
remains were to be buried within the burial park. I was informed that Howard Williams Funeral
Service representatives contacted Brooks County officials in writing and in official County
meetings regarding their concerns about the limited space available to the funeral company to
bury unidentified human remains.

Howard Williams Funeral representatives provided me with a copy of a Brooks County J ustice
of the Peace Inquest dated 5/11/2009 with an attached Brooks County Sheriffs Office report
dated 5/01/2009. I observed there were obvious discrepancies between the dates and times of
the incident in the Inquest and the police report which clearly referencing the same incident.
The report did not appear to be complete as it did not show whether law enforcement returned
to the extremely remote location to retrieve the rest of the human remains reported by the land
owner.

Brooks County J udge Raul Ramirez confirmed the funeral company contacted Brooks County
officials regarding their concern for available space to bury unidentified human remains at the
burial park. J udge Ramirez informed me there were active efforts to locate a new site for the
interment of unidentified human remains located in Brooks County. J udge Ramirez stated the
effort to secure new land for burial was met with unforeseen obstacles. J udge Ramirez stated
the unidentified remains were interred in any location available at the cemetery until new land
could be allocated for proper interment.

J udge Ramirez was unaware of any reports the mortuary company charged families of
deceased persons for DNA analysis. J udge Ramirez acknowledged there were procedures that
were not followed by the County due to a lack of detailed knowledge of regulations governing
the DNA testing of unidentified human remains. J udge Ramirez provided documentation of
cases where DNA testing was used to confirm the identity of human remains in Brooks County.
J udge Ramirez stated the reason that the J im Hogg County unidentified human remains were
located in the Brooks County cemetery could be attributed to the fact that Elizondo Mortuary
Service handles unidentified remains for Brooks and J im Hogg counties and human remains
intended for J im Hogg County could have been returned to Brooks County for interment by
mistake. J udge Ramirez also stated that it was very likely that a previous serving Brooks
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County official had an agreement with a J im Hogg County official to inter unidentified human
remains in the Brooks County Cemetery.

J udge Ramirez confirmed he was aware that Howard Williams Funeral Home employees, at
their own expense, placed markers and flowers at the gravesites and built wooden caskets for
the bodies of unidentified persons. J udge Ramirez expressed his concern that Brooks County
was under-staffed and under-funded to handle the overwhelming increase in undocumented
immigration issues.

I met with local Brooks County law enforcement officials who expressed their concerns that
Brooks County was being charged for autopsies that were not being performed. I was informed
that none of the four justices of the peace for Brooks County had ever received autopsy reports
from the autopsies performed on unidentified human remains. Brooks County law enforcement
did confirm that Howard Williams Funeral Service had provided body bags to law enforcement,
at no cost to the County, should law enforcement need a bag at a time when the funeral
company was unable to respond immediately.

I was also informed that in the past several months, Brooks County has experienced a
substantial increase in the number of calls for response reference the location of human
remains in Brooks County and it is not equipped to handle this sharp increase. This problem is
further compounded by the additional strains this places on already overburdened Brooks
County resources. Brooks County law enforcement officials expressed they were not able to
conduct an investigation into their concerns over the handling of unidentified human remains
because they lacked the manpower and the financial resources to conduct the routine
investigations they are already faced with.

After meeting with Brooks County law enforcement, I determined there exists a substantial
certainty human remains do still exist scattered throughout the rural ranches that make up
Brooks County. The identification of these remains will continue to be a challenge as remains
are discovered in all stages of decomposition and, if not found immediately, often become
subject to the extreme animal predation and environmental conditions. These environmental
elements scatter human remains over a wide area causing them to become comingled with
other yet to be discovered and decomposed human remains already existing in the area. This
natural comingling of decomposed human remains will present a challenge to persons tasked
with the removal of said remains as they attempt isolate one set of remains, or partial remains,
from any others. It is reasonable to believe that law enforcement, or any designated person or
group, tasked with removing scattered human remains could mistakenly remove two sets of
partial human remains believing they are one, and therefore would inadvertently comingle two,
or multiple sets, of human remains in one container.

I reviewed county billing records at the Brooks County Auditors Office reference billed services
by Howard Williams Funeral Homes, Elizondos Mortuary Service, and Dr. Fulgencio P. Salinas.
I found that Brooks County was billed for storage of human remains at a rate of $50.00 per day
with an average of three to five days of storage in the randomly selected billing cycles. I did not
find any instances where Brooks County was charged for storing remains for 30 days. The
county auditor staff stated they never recalled seeing such a bill and would have remembered
any unusual charge if it existed.

I also discovered that the Authorization for Autopsy orders from the Brooks County J ustice of
the Peace were attached to the billing statements from Elizondo Mortuary Service and Dr.
Salinas. Also attached to the said billing statements were copies of the autopsy reports
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documenting the finding of Dr. Salinas for the autopsies he performed. The Brooks County
Auditor staff stated they had not seen any unusual billing from vendors related to the services
rendered reference unidentified human remains.

On 06-26-2014, the Texas Funeral Services Commission (TFSC) conducted an inspection of
the Howard Williams Funeral Service. According to the TFSC, Howard Funeral Service
employees and representatives cooperated fully with the inspection. I was told that the TFSC
did not find any violations during this inspection.

I was informed by the TFSC that the county government having jurisdiction over a county owned
cemetery is the governing body responsible for the standards and regulations that establishing
how human remains are to be interred in the county owned cemetery. There are no Texas
statutes that govern the burial proximity, or positioning limitations, in relation to other buried
human remains. There are no Texas statutes prohibiting two or more sets of human remains
buried in the same grave or even in the same casket. Texas Health and Safety Code 695.001
defines a casket as, A container used to hold the remains of a deceased person. Therefore,
any material, including plastic bags and plywood boxes, falls within the HSC definition of a
casket.

As a result of this inquiry, I was able to determine the following;
(1) No evidence exists indicating Howard Williams Funeral Home over-billed Brooks
County for services or equipment.
(2) No evidence exists to show that the funeral home or the mortuary company used
improper containers to transport or bury human remains.
(3) Documentation of autopsies performed by Dr. Salinas of unidentified human remains
was sent to the Brooks County Auditors office along with the billing for services. The
Brooks County justices of the peace and Brooks County law enforcement were
unaware of the existence of the autopsy reports at the county auditors office.
(4) The orders by the presiding justice of the peace for authorization to conduct an
autopsy were located with the autopsy bill for service at the Brooks County Auditors
office, along with the autopsy report.
(5) No evidence exists to show that Elizondo Mortuary Service has billed Brooks County
for excessive storage fees.
(6) No evidence to show that human remains were buried in violation of the law;
a. TFSC determined the containers of human remains were marked, with black
marker ink, with the available information pertaining to the remains.
b. Were in fact buried in a container that satisfies HSC 695.001.
c. There are no statutes prohibiting more than one set of human remains to be
buried with another at a government owned cemetery.
d. There are no statutes prohibiting human remains from being buried above, or
in close proximity to, other human remains at a government owned cemetery.
(7) DNA samples from unidentified human remains were being secured. However, prior
to August of 2013, collected DNA samples were not being sent to the University of
North Texas as Brooks County officials were unaware of a requirement to do so.
(8) Through human error, lack of oversight, or possibly even because of a pre-existing
agreement with J im Hogg County, unidentified remains were interred at the Brooks
County Cemetery.



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Therefore, it is my opinion that sufficient information and evidence does not exist to support the
initiation of a formal criminal investigation.

Thank you,

Corey Lain, Lieutenant
Texas Ranger, Company D





Reviewed on 06/27/2014:

I concur I do not concur


Brian J . Burzynski, Major
Texas Rangers Company D