The owner of Wilks Funeral Home plans to personally cover funeral expenses for four families who had already paid to have loved ones buried through Downard Funeral Home, which has been closed amid an investigation of “suspicious circumstances.”

Police executed a search warrant on Downard, located on the 200 block of North Garfield Avenue in Pocatello, on Friday, reportedly removing several bodies, some in various states of decomposition due to a lack of refrigeration. Police said the bodies removed from Downard that they were able to identify were turned over to other local funeral homes, including Wilks.

Police said they also removed several fetuses from Downard during the search of the building on Friday. The case remains under investigation, no charges have been filed and no one is in police custody, Pocatello police confirmed on Monday. Authorities said Lance Peck, who co-owns Downard with his wife, voluntarily surrendered his licenses to operate the business on Wednesday after a visit from Idaho Division of Occupational Licenses inspectors.

Idaho State University had also made reports of missing bodies handled by Downard that were supposed to be turned over to ISU’s anatomical donation program but were allegedly never provided by the funeral home.

Peck has not returned several phone calls from the Idaho State Journal asking for his response regarding the police investigation into his funeral home.

Brock Wilks, the owner of Wilks Funeral Home, 211 W. Chubbuck Road in Chubbuck, and Wilks Colonial Chapel, 2005 S. Fourth Ave. in Pocatello, said four bodies have been transferred from Downard to his care and the families of those deceased individuals will not be charged beyond what they have already paid to Downard for funeral services.

“We are going to offer our services at no cost,” Wilks said, explaining that the community has had questions about how area funeral homes operate in general following the news about Downard. “We want to earn that trust back and let the community know it’s not just about business for us. It’s about taking care of the community. We want to take care of these people who have essentially had this misfortune thrust upon them.”

Wilks said a dozen other families who had made prearrangements for future funeral services through Downard have contacted him about having those agreements transferred to one of his funeral homes. Wilks explained the paperwork to transfer a prearranged funeral service is relatively simple.

Even prior to the Downard investigation, Wilks had posted a virtual tour of his Chubbuck funeral home on his website, www.wilksfuneralhome.com, in the interest of transparency. He emphasized that he maintains an open-door policy and invites families to view any area of his facilities.

“It’s causing some general uncertainty as far as operational things that occur at a funeral home,” Wilks said about the Downard investigation. “When you consider what happens at a funeral home, a lot of times it’s behind closed doors because of the nature of what it is and it’s very emotional to families. They may not want to see what’s happening.”

Before Wilks acquired Colonial Funeral Home earlier this year and renamed it Wilks Colonial Chapel, Colonial had contracted to have its cremation services performed at Downard.

Wilks said Colonial’s cremations have all been done at his Chubbuck funeral home, which adheres to high standards, since the acquisition.

“A metal disk with an individual ID number is with your loved one every step of the process to ensure correct identification,” Wilks said in a Sept. 4 Facebook post.

Wilks said in the post that all paperwork on cremations is completed with the involvement of local authorities and reviewed.

Scott Cornelison, the owner of Cornelison Funeral Home & Cremation Services, 431 N. 15th Ave., Pocatello, said there is a “general concern” among the public following the announcement of the Downard investigation. Cornelison also handles every step of the cremation process in house.

“I haven’t had anybody call and say, ‘What’s your process?’ I’ve just had people call and say, ‘We would prefer you do it.’ People trust us implicitly from one end to the other,” Cornelison said. “We do everything according to how the state law is set up, exactly. ... If you follow the way the laws are set up there shouldn’t be any problem at all.”

On Friday, in the wake of the announcement of the Downard investigation, the phone lines at the Pocatello Police Department were ringing off the hook with families who’ve used Downard for funeral services asking questions and providing information to police, said Pocatello police officer Greg Cates.

Authorities are encouraging people with questions or information about Downard to contact the Pocatello Police Department. In the interest of efficiency, however, police are asking anyone seeking to contact investigators about the Downard case to file documentation online at reportacrime.pocatello.us. Cates said people should file their comments under the link “information or documentation only report,” making certain to include the decedent’s name, date of birth and date of death, along with any relevant information.

For those who don’t have computer access, Cates said the Police Department’s investigations unit will also accept calls at 208-234-6121, though the website is the preferred method of communication.

“We have been getting hundreds of calls from family and concerned citizens,” Cates said. “Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of the answers they’re looking for and we won’t until we get a bigger picture of what happened.”

Fort Hall resident David Archuleta, who is a former tribal judge, is among the many people in the community with lingering questions after having a family member’s funeral services handled by Downard.

Archuleta said his family has used Downard ever since the funeral home opened decades ago. In recent years, he’s buried his father, brother-in-law and mother through Downard.

The most recent funeral was for his mother, whom he believes was cremated a year and a half ago. Archuleta said he asked to witness her cremation but ultimately left before it occurred because Peck told him the furnace hadn’t reached the appropriate temperature.

“You don’t have closure because you don’t know. You don’t know if she was one of the detained bodies in there,” Archuleta said. “I don’t suspect she is — my gut tells me she’s not — but on the other hand those are someone’s family members.”

Archuleta said some of his cousins had a funeral at Downard about a month ago and commented about a strong foul odor within the building.

“It’s a special trust you have with a funeral home,” Archuleta said. “You’re entrusting your loved ones to them.”