POCATELLO — Police and prosecutors want the public to know that the Downard Funeral Home investigation is far from being a cold case.

Ever since Pocatello police executed a search warrant at the North Garfield Avenue funeral home last year, the case has been a top priority, authorities said.

But the massive volume of evidence collected by police, ranging from decomposing bodies to fetuses in jars to thousands of pages of documents at the funeral home, and the complexities of a case that is unique in every way mean that it will be several months before a decision is made by the Bannock County Prosecutor's Office on whether criminal charges should be filed, prosecutors said.

There has been much speculation about what happened at Downard and Pocatello police said they want to debunk some of those claims. Police said they have found no evidence that empty caskets were buried or that bodies are missing.

Other than the 12 decomposing bodies found at the funeral home during the execution of the search warrant, police said they believe all of the bodies brought to Downard were buried or cremated.

Pocatello police executed a search warrant at Downard on Sept. 3, 2021, the same day that Lance Peck, who co-owns the business with his wife, surrendered his license to operate the funeral home to the Idaho Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses.

Authorities said they started to look into Downard after receiving multiple complaints about the funeral home, including reports of foul smells and decomposing bodies being left out in the open.

Police said that since the search warrant was executed, one Pocatello police detective has been assigned full-time to the Downard investigation, working on only that case.

This detective has organized all of the Downard evidence into a massive spreadsheet, police said.

Police said the volume of evidence in the case is so large and complex that the spreadsheet was needed to inventory and organize it.

Police said Peck initially cooperated with them on the investigation but has since stopped cooperating.

Peck has thus far not commented on the investigation into his funeral home, which has remained shut down since the search warrant was executed.

Police said there has never been anything like the Downard case in Idaho history and there have only been a few cases similar to it nationwide. This has added to the complexity and duration of the investigation, police said.

"The case is an anomaly," Pocatello police Capt. Bill Collins said.

The execution of the search warrant at Downard by Pocatello police revealed the 12 bodies in various stages of decomposition as well as approximately 50 fetuses in jars and dozens of unidentified cremated remains, police said.

Police were eventually able to positively identify the 12 bodies and determine that the fetuses were part of a biological science collection donated from the University of Utah to Idaho State University and then to Downard for destruction. But they were never destroyed, police said.

Authorities said identifying the 30-40 sets of cremated remains found at Downard will be difficult.

Police said they also confiscated thousands of documents from Downard and going through all of those pages took several months. All of the documents are being digitized to help prosecutors review the material.

Collins said executing the search warrant at Downard took an emotional toll on the police and other responders who were at the funeral home over multiple days.

He said police have the same concerns about what happened at Downard as people in the community do.

The question of whether the case rises to the level of criminal charges being filed will be answered by prosecutors in the months to come.