From WRIL -
WRIL has acquired paperwork from Franklin County Circuit Court in regard to a 39 count indictment on a former Bell County Coroner and Middlesboro funeral home director and owner.
Donald Clyde Creech, former owner of Creech Funeral Home in Middlesboro has been indicted 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 funds 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. The monies range from $3,750 to as much as $9,000 for a total of $248,925, which is alleged to have been taken from 1996 to roughly January of 2014.
There is also one count of theft by failure to make required disposition of property over $500 in regard to $5515 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.
Clyde Creech went through bankruptcy at one point and in December of 2011 trustees took over the business when he wasn’t complying with the bankruptcy process.
The Creech funeral home was sold to two individuals out of Indianapolis in 2013 and Clyde Creech was finally asked to leave the business in March 2016.
Creech held the office of Bell County Coroner from 1981 to 2011.
A criminal summons has been issued for Clyde Creech and he has a court date scheduled for May 27, 2022, in Franklin Circuit Court.
The funeral home is now named Cawood Funeral Home, owned by Paul Cawood.