Former funeral home owner/director indicted

Donald Clyde Creech owned a funeral home in Middlesboro and was the longtime Bell County coroner

FRANKFORT, Ky. (WTVQ) – The former owner/director of a funeral home in Middlesboro has been indicted on charges of violating trust provision and theft, according to WRIL Radio.

The report says a Franklin County Grand Jury indicted Donald Clyde Creech on 38 counts of violating the trust provision of pre-need payment for funeral goods.

Each of the 38 counts represents families that Creech is accused of taking money from that were to be placed in trust and then sent to the trust manager at the Funeral Directors Association of Kentucky in Franklin County, according to the report.

The amount of money ranged from $3,750 to as much as $9,000 for a total of $248,925, according to the report.

Creech was also indicted on one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $500 in regards to $5,515 obtained from an individual for a legal obligation in which Creech intentionally dealt with the property as his own and failed to make the required payment, according to the report.

Creech went through bankruptcy and in December 2011 trustees took over his business because he wasn’t complying with the bankruptcy process, according to WRIL Radio.

Creech Funeral Home in Middlesboro was sold in 2013 and Creech was asked to leave the business three years later, according to the report.  The funeral home is now named Cawood Funeral Home.  It is owned by Paul Cawood.

Creech served as Bell County coroner from 1981-to-2011.

A criminal summons was issued for Creech.  He’s due in Franklin Circuit Court May 27, 2022.