Embalmer Busted For Funeral Home Horror

MARCH 11--An embalmer at a Texas funeral firm used a scalpel to mutilate a sex offender’s corpse then stuffed the decedent’s severed penis in his mouth, according to a court filing.

The shocking incident occurred last month at Memorial Mortuary & Crematory in Houston and resulted in the arrest of Amber Paige Laudermilk, 34, for abuse of a corpse, a felony.

Investigators have identified the dead man as Charles Roy Rodriguez, 58, a registered sex offender who lived in Brookside Village, a Houston suburb. Rodriguez was convicted of sexually assaulting a 31-year-old woman and was judged a “moderate” risk, according to the Texas offender registry which lists him as being required to remain on the registry for the entirety of his life.

As detailed in a court filing, “within minutes” of funeral company management learning of Rodriguez’s criminal history, a crematory employee told a coworker that she observed Laudermilk (seen above) “cut off the decedent’s penis halfway and stuff it is his mouth.”

Rodriguez is pictured below.

Upon learning of the mutilation, a Memorial Mortuary & Crematory manager went to the cremation room “to look for themselves,” and “noticed the genitals had been mutilated and the penis was in his mouth.”

A “provisional embalmer” told cops that she witnessed Laudermilk “stab decedent Rodriguez twice with a scalpel in the groin and then cut off his penis and place it in the decedent’s mouth.”

“You didn’t see anything,” Laudermilk reportedly said, according to one worker who told police she perceived the statement to be “threatening.”

According to investigators, a funeral director said she saw Laudermilk “fondling the mouth of the decedent,” adding that “the decedent’s penis was in his mouth.” Laudermilk, the director said, “responded by quickly covering the groin area with a towel and stated that the decedent had ‘a lot going on with him.’”

A judge today set Laudermilk’s bond at $5000, with the condition that “DEFENDANT MAY NOT BE EMPLOYED AS AN EMBALMER WHILE THIS CASE IS PENDING.”

Texas Funeral Service Commission records list Laudermilk’s “Specialty” as “Embalmer,” and her license status as “Suspended.” Laudermilk’s home address is listed as a Houston property owned by her 67-year-old mother. (3 pages)