Cops say they have Ohio pastor Shawnte Hardin dead to rights after finding the cremated remains of 89 people secretly stashed in boxes and bags inside his abandoned church!
“It’s heartbreaking,” says the niece of the late Joseph Blackshear, whose remains were part of the ghoulish discovery. “It’s crazy to think anyone would do anything like that.”
Authorities were tipped off about the grisly graveyard by a woman who describes herself as an “urban explorer” who crashed Hardin’s already shuttered Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Akron.
Some of the remains date back to 2010, according to a state search warrant.
Hardin’s attorney, Richard Kerger, explains away the hellish hoard by saying his 41-year-old client was asked by the late funeral director Robert Tate Jr. to store ashes that hadn’t been claimed by their families.
“There was no compensation for him,” says Kerger. “He was just doing a service for someone who needed it.”
Amazingly, Tate pleaded no contest to one felony and three misdemeanor charges in 2015 after authorities found 11 bodies in various states of decay at his Toledo funeral home.
He was sentenced to a week in jail and probation. He died in December.
Hardin was indicted on 37 counts in September after another witness called 911 to report seeing a corpse moved from a van into a building in Lucas County, about 100 miles from Akron.
Seven additional counts were added in December. The charges include tampering with records, identity fraud and abuse of a corpse.
Hardin insists he wasn’t pretending to be a funeral director. He claims he was merely providing low-cost services for washing and transporting bodies.
Authorities haven’t said if they are going to upgrade charges against Hardin after the latest discovery.
Kerger insists Hardin was just providing a needed service, saying: “There’s nothing wrong with helping people dispose of the remains of their loved ones.”
