POCATELLO — The excruciatingly long wait for closure in a case where police discovered numerous bodies in various stages of decomposition and dozens of unidentified cremated remains has been delayed again after a Bannock County judge rejected the plea agreement for former Downard Funeral Home owner Lance Peck on Thursday.

Dozens of Peck’s alleged victims filled the courtroom of 6th District Judge Javier Gabiola, with more waiting in the hallway, anticipating the opportunity to provide impact statements during Peck’s scheduled sentencing hearing at the Bannock County Courthouse in Pocatello.

Just a few minutes after the 2 p.m. hearing commenced, those in the gallery would hear Gabiola reject a plea agreement that limited the maximum mandatory prison sentence he could impose against Peck to three years.

Before Gabiola could inquire how Peck, who again appeared in court wearing an oxygen tank on his back with tubes leading up to his face, and his Pocatello attorney Richard Blok would like to proceed, one of the victims in the courtroom shouted, “Go to hell, Lance.”

The case began in August 2021 when Pocatello police first learned of suspicious circumstances at Downard after receiving a report of a strong smell coming from an open window at 241 N. Garfield Ave. Officers dressed in hazmat suits later spent about 12 hours executing a search warrant, encountering what Pocatello Police Capt. Bill Collins, a 30-year veteran, described as ”the thing of nightmares and then some.”

“We trust these people at funeral homes with our loved ones,” Collins told the Journal in 2022. “That was not occurring.”

Instead of maintaining the guilty pleas Peck entered in June to six felony charges and putting him at the mercy of the court with more than 50 years in prison hanging over his head, Blok withdrew the pleas altogether, setting the stage for an upcoming trial where his alleged victims will have a chance to look him in the eye and share how they’ve been affected by his alleged mishandling of dozens of funeral and cremation services while operating his former business, which has since been demolished and is now a parking lot for Pocatello High School students.

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The rejected plea agreement called for prosecutors to recommend Peck spend a unified prison term of 10 years, of which only three years would have been mandatory and bound, or required, Gabiola to impose a sentence within those recommendations.

Among those prepared to address the court Thursday was Mary Alice Cantrell, who traveled 2,450 miles from western North Carolina to attend the hearing. Her son, Anthony Tucker, died on Sept. 11, 2020, and his remains were allegedly among those mishandled by Peck.

“I slept in my car Saturday till last night,” Cantrell said in between sobs after learning she had missed the hearing by just 20 minutes. “A lady here in town let me have a room last night.”

Barbara Wentzel, whose mother, Marianne, died in September 2019, said she was glad the plea deal was rejected.

“I knew they were gonna do it anyway, and I’m glad,” Wentzel said. “That was a bad plea deal.”

Wentzel said after her mother died, Peck provided her with ashes her family used for a funeral, only to learn Marianne’s name appeared on documents for a cremation that occurred after the service.

“We lost our mother, and then we lost her again,” Wentzel said. “We don’t even know where she is.”

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Court documents allege Peck misrepresented remains to at least 25 families while operating Downard between 2017 and 2021. He originally faced 22 felony charges carrying a maximum of more than 250 years in prison.

“Things began to go bad for me when I decided to buy Downard Funeral Home,” Peck said in June. “I was always overwhelmed by the financial and regulatory aspects of my work.”

Wentzel and her sister, Janet Service, are paying to put Cantrell in a hotel room for the night so she can at least get one good night’s worth of rest before trekking back home.

Cantrell said when she drove to Pocatello in September 2021, she confronted Peck at the funeral home.

“He was standing beside a dead body inside the damn carport by the building materials,” Cantrell said. “When I was there in front of him, there was this melting guy on the ground.”

Peck surrendered his funeral home license on Sept. 1, 2021, just days after police executed their search warrant. He was first arrested in August 2022 on misdemeanor charges, posted a $20,000 bond and has remained out of jail since.

Rhonda D’Amico, whose husband Eric’s remains were allegedly mishandled, moved to the Central Oregon coast after the incident and is working to organize monthly Zoom meetings with victims to keep everyone informed as the trial date approaches. Eric’s body was entrusted to Peck the day he died in August 2021, and D’Amico still doesn’t know what happened to his remains.

Without Eric’s ashes to spread at his favorite spots, D’Amico has found other ways to honor his memory. She erected a memorial bench on Scout Mountain adorned with lyrics from one of the couple’s favorite musicians, Stoney LaRue: “Stay for a while, sit down easy.”

Had she had the chance to address the court Thursday, D’Amico prepared a statement that described feeling silenced by the plea agreement process.

“The plea agreement also effectively silences and disempowers the victims,” D’Amico wrote. “It is painful to feel our voices and experiences really don’t matter to the courts where sentencing is concerned…Give our loved ones a chance to matter. Give me a chance to matter.”

Though lengthening her wait, Gabiola’s decision Thursday may give her that chance and she is grateful for his ruling.

“I very very much appreciate the decision the judge made today,” D’Amico told the Journal after Thursday’s hearing. “I finally feel like our voices will be heard.”

Sam D’Amico, Eric’s son, echoed similar sentiments after Thursday’s hearing while trying to remain optimistic about the path forward.

“Sad to see this dragging out yet again,” Sam D’Amico said. “But I’m trying to look at it as the glass half-full situation. He’s going to get more than three years in prison and a much more fitting sentence.”

Though Sam is hopeful for a harsher sentence, he noted the trial will be a difficult process for the victims who have to testify against Peck.

“I know it’s rough for everybody who’s having to wait even longer to see something come of this,” D’Amico said. “Trial is going to be rough for a lot of people. Certainly, like a lot of people, I wish that we’d been able to just kind of put this behind us after today, but I guess we’ll move forward.”

Judy Boozer, a friend of Rhonda who also lives in Oregon, said the ongoing case has taken an emotional toll on all the victims.

“I can’t even imagine how they’re going forward each day,” Boozer said. “It’s just been horrific, and how someone can plead guilty and now withdraw — that’s just beyond my comprehension.”

Boozer expressed frustration that Peck has remained out of jail since his initial arrest in 2022.

“He’s been free for the last four years. He’s going to continue to be free, I’m guessing,” Boozer said. “It’s gotta be frustrating for everyone in there, sitting there, thinking this was finally going to come to a resolution, and now it’s just beginning.”

Kathy Packard, another victim’s family member, also spoke to the Journal after the hearing, sharing a glimpse of how those impacted are doing their best to comfort one another.

“There was a lady there that drove all the way from North Carolina today, and I gave her a hug,” Packard said, referring to Cantrell. “It’s a very emotional thing for a lot of us, and so now we have to wait.”

Another alleged victim, Jimmy Homan, told the Journal he and his family are profoundly distressed and deeply disappointed with Thursday’s outcome.

“We believe Mr. Peck should be held fully accountable for his actions and for the harm he has caused to our family and to this community,” said Homan, whose family entrusted Peck to care for their loved one Barbara’s remains in August 2021. “We urgently need accountability and justice in this matter so that we can begin to move on. It’s been too long already.”

Not all perspectives on Peck were critical, however. Stephen Spangler, a neighbor of Peck’s for over two decades on Garfield Avenue, submitted a letter to the court speaking highly of Peck.

Spangler wrote that Peck had come to his aid on several occasions after his wife Carol died and he was living alone.

“Lance has stepped up to help me and in doing so has proven to be dependable, conscientious, trustworthy and honest,” Spangler wrote. “On numerous occasions I have been able to entrust the ongoing care of my home, pets and belongings to him while away, and he has cared for them in superbly reliable fashion.”

Spangler described Peck’s character in glowing terms.

“Lance has a giant heart, and his decency and caring nature have been greatly appreciated over the years,” Spangler wrote. “There is nobody else in this area who comes close to being as trustworthy and dependable as Lance has been to me.”

Blok and Bannock County Prosecutor Ian Johnson declined to comment on the case. Johnson asked the victims to remain in the courtroom after the hearing, where he explained what happened Thursday and the next steps.

Peck is scheduled to appear in front of Gabiola again for a scheduling conference on Dec. 1 that would involve setting a date for a pretrial conference and a jury trial so long as prosecutors and Blok don’t work out another deal that does not bind, or require, Gabiola to impose a particular sentence.

Packard said she believes prosecutors are committed to taking the case to trial. She said officials mentioned potentially setting up a Zoom for victims to watch the Dec. 1 hearing remotely, as many are traveling from out of state.

“I think the (prosecutor) and the assistant (prosecutor) are like, you know, we’re going to try him,” Packard said. “The (prosecutor) says he can’t tell us a lot of stuff because he doesn’t want it out there, but he’s going to do his due diligence to get us justice.”

For now, victims like Rhonda and Cantrell face another long journey home, still without the closure they traveled so far to find.

“I drove for four days to be here,” Cantrell said. “And I knew this was gonna happen.”