BRUNSWICK, Ga. – A Brunswick funeral home is offering to examine ashes for grieving pet owners who say they were duped by a Kingsland crematory.
Brunswick Memorial Park Funeral Home is inviting customers who used Compassionate Care Pet Crematory Services to bring ashes to its facility so a licensed cremation professional can determine whether the material is cremated remains. The exams cannot prove a specific animal’s identity, but they can provide families a little peace of mind.
The offer comes after Kingsland police executed a search warrant at Compassionate Care and uncovered what officers say appeared to be dozens of pet remains buried under blue tarps.
Managers Nader and Amanda Rayan were arrested. Police say Nader faces two felony counts of theft by deception, and Amanda is charged as a party to a crime. Investigators say additional charges are possible.
One of the owners who brought ashes in for review is Suzanne Zisselsberger, who lost her 11-year-old Shetland sheepdog, Charlie, in March.
“The ashes that I got, I don’t think are enough for a 30-pound dog,” she told the I-TEAM.
Zisselsberger said she brought Charlie to Compassionate Care on a Friday night because it was the only place that would take him.
A licensed cremationist at Brunswick, Arianna Deblois-Summerford, who usually works with human remains, examined the material.
Deblois-Summerford told Zisselsberger the first troubling detail she found was a mismatch between a cremation tag and the certificate provided to the owner.
“The first thing that I’m seeing here is that the cremation number they have is 5218, and you said that did not match up with what you had right on his certificate,” she said. “When told the certificate number was 5248, she replied, “‘OK, so that is concerning.’”
She explained why the mismatch matters: “At any reputable crematory, a cremation number that you know matches the disc will be assigned from the first time the pet or person enters the crematory, and that very same tag should stay with them through the entire process. It actually enters the crematory with them. And so you never should see a discrepancy.”
Deblois-Summerford told the I-TEAM she could identify the material as cremated remains, but she cautioned that such an inspection cannot prove whether the ashes belong to a specific animal.
“So you see bone, that’s right, I do agree that these are cremated remains,” she said.
Zisselsberger said she brought the ashes to Brunswick because she needed confirmation. Still, she said, she is struggling with the uncertainty.
“I still, in my heart, have a hard time believing I’m just going to have to assume that they’re Charlie… I’m very angry at this, and I don’t know if I have Charlie," she said.
The Rayans’ arrest is not the couple’s first run-in with investigators. News reports and earlier I-TEAM reporting tie Nader Rayan to prior complaints and legal trouble in Florida involving cemetery and funeral-home operations. Local authorities say the couple was taken into custody in Kenner, Louisiana, following a BOLO, and are awaiting extradition to Georgia.
The Brunswick funeral home’s offer underscores a regulatory gap in the pet-crematory business. The licensed cremationist who evaluated the ashes described pet crematories as “the wild west” of the funeral industry. That regulatory gap, she told the I-TEAM, can leave grieving customers with little oversight and few protections.
“I will say that as far as pet crematories go, they really are kind of the wild west of the funeral industry,” Deblois-Summerford said. “Some states do require them to have a crematory license… Georgia is not one of them. The only thing you have to adhere to would be just your local zoning laws.”
Grieving owners like Zisselsberger said the emotional toll is profound.
“Our pets are our children. You know, we love them like family members… They mean something to us,” she said. “What those two did was wrong, and all I can say is, God’s watching.”
Families who wish to set up an appointment at Brunswick Memorial Park Funeral Home can call (912) 265-6454.
Anyone who used Compassionate Care Pet Crematory Services and believes they were defrauded or received suspicious remains is urged to contact Kingsland police. The investigation is ongoing.