SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WCIA) – A new law now in effect aims to bring major reforms to the funeral home industry.

The Integrity in Death Care Act creates a more thorough system for tracking remains from when someone dies to what happens to their body afterwards. People who violate the law could face penalties.

The law is in response to an investigation Sangamon County Coroner Jim Allmon opened into Heinz Funeral Home in Carlinville more than a year ago after his office discovered the funeral home gave families the wrong cremated remains.

Allmon encouraged families to call his office if they were concerned they had the wrong remains. And to this day, his office still gets those calls.

“A lot of families are curious that utilized that funeral home and whether or not they have their loved ones,” Allmon said. “And believe it or not, there are still some families that haven’t heard about what happened and they just recently have heard about it and still reach out.”

Allmon said his office confirmed nearly 80 families received the wrong ashes. His office has also been able to reunite some families with their loved ones’ remains.

“They were in a position where they needed to grieve appropriately and the last thing that they thought would happen was that they would be given the wrong cremains,” Allmon said.

But that’s not the case for everyone, Allmon said some families may never know if they have the right ashes.

“Because the tag that was supposed to be affixed to the cremains was no longer there or they had spread their loved ones ashes,” Allmon said.

The news of Allmon’s investigation caught the attention of lawmakers in the Capitol, eventually passing legislation to make sure this doesn’t happen to other families.

“We had some obstacles when this transpired because there wasn’t anything in place that said, ‘If you do this, this could happen or you’re not supposed to do this,’” Allmon said.

The law went into effect at the start of the new year. It requires a unique identification tagging system for all human remains. 

If someone knowingly breaks the law, they could be charged with a Class 4 felony. That carries a sentence of one to three years behind bars.

“A lot of the families that I’ve spoken to really want some accountability, so I think that fixing a penalty to this and saying, ‘Look, not only is this against the law, but if you knowingly do this, there is going to be a penalty,’” Allmon said.

Allmon said his office currently has around 20 unclaimed remains because they didn’t have a tag connected to them identify the ashes, and in some cases, he said families didn’t take the ashes because they’re not sure if it’s actually their loved ones.

Allmon plans to put the remains in a crypt at Oak Ridge Cemetery which his office has done before for unclaimed remains.

In August, Illinois State Police (ISP) finished up an investigation into the funeral home. They gave the case to the Macoupin County State’s Attorney.

At the time his office said they were determining if there were any charges that applied to the case.

WCIA reached out to the state’s attorney’s office for an update, but they haven’t responded.