Henderson County (Dec 15, 2021) - The North Carolina Board of Funeral Service will refer the findings in a lengthy investigation of Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors to law enforcement authorities “for consideration as to whether criminal charges are warranted.”
Henderson County (Nov 23, 2021) - Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors, one of the oldest continuously operating businesses in Hendersonville, may have conducted its last service.
Commissioner Daniel Andreotta announced at the tail end of 6½-hour Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday afternoon that he had drafted a letter to N.C. Cemetery Commission urging the regulatory board to bring about a swift resolution to the problem of overgrown grass. The cemetery owners locked the gates to the large graveyard over the weekend because of what they described as threats to employees and security concerns. There s not a whole lot we can do at the county level but I did promise that we, or I at least, would send a letter to the North Carolina Cemetery Commission just letting them know that the issue has our attention and our interest, Andreotta said before reading the letter aloud.
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“I’m 60 years old and I’ve never known those gates to be closed,” Proffitt said, attributing the action to Melody Shepherd, co-owner of Thos. Shepherd & Son Funeral Directors. “I don’t know what kind of game she’s playing but she’s hurting a lot of people. She can make the hours but Saturday and Sunday is the day people don’t work, when they go (visit loved ones’ graves). I don’t see how she can stop us if we bought those plots. That’s our land, those two plots.”
One day after good Samaritan landscapers voluntarily mowed the overgrown cemetery grounds and trimmed weeds around headstones, the cemetery’s owners locked the gates.