PITTSBURGH, PA — A former Pittsburgh funeral home owner who took money to cremate deceased pets but instead dumped bodies in local landfills and returned unknown animal ashes to owners pleaded guilty Thursday to criminal charges.
Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday said Vereb pleaded guilty to felony counts of theft by deception, receiving stolen property, and deceptive business practices. Vereb, 72, is the former operator of Vereb Funeral Homes and Eternity Pet Memorial in Hazelwood and Harrison.
After the plea was entered, Vereb's bond was revoked and he will be housed in the Allegheny County Jail until his Jan. 21 sentencing.
Vereb was accused of stealing more than $650,000 from customers who paid for cremations, burials, returns of ashes and other animal-related services. The alleged offenses occurred between 2021 and 2024.
Instead of providing cremation services, Vereb disposed of many of the pets at a landfill and provided customers with ashes of other, unknown animals.
According to Sunday, an extensive investigation identified more than 6,500 victims from Allegheny, Armstrong, Washington, and Westmoreland counties in Western Pennsylvania.
"As a pet owner, I know that losing a pet is like losing a family member, and the defendant's conduct, without a doubt, worsened that pain for these victims," Sunday said in a statement.
"No sentence can alleviate the grief and heartache that has been caused here, but our hope is this felony conviction provides a measure of closure as it involves the defendant taking responsibility and admitting to what he did."
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