GRAND JUNCTION — More than a dozen creditors showed up at the Mesa County courthouse on Friday, some with the aid of walkers, canes or oxygen tanks, demanding to know what happened to the money they paid for future funeral services after a funeral home operator admitted she spent the money on a vacation and other personal expenses.
Rhonda Lynn Nelson, owner of the now-defunct Mesa Funeral Service, told officials she owes at least 30 people for prepaid funeral expenses. Nelson told a bankruptcy trustee on Friday that she went on vacation, bought her boyfriend a truck and paid his legal bills using money drawn from the funeral home’s business checking account.
Nelson filed for personal bankruptcy in January, claiming more than $450,000 in debts.
The daughter of one creditor cursed at Nelson and was ejected from the meeting by Chapter 7 Bankruptcy Trustee Jared Walters.
Nelson testified that she spent their deposits on wages for herself and to pay the costs of the business. The money was never placed in a trust or used to buy funeral expense insurance, she said.
Nelson said she never intended to include the prepaid funeral contracts in bankruptcy and promised she would eventually return the deposits using money she earns from a future job. She is currently unemployed.
Mearl Sheldon, owner of Spanish Valley Mortuary in Moab, said Nelson owes him for embalming supplies and caskets he provided in anticipation of a business deal that would put him in control of Mesa Funeral Service.
Sheldon is owed an estimated $50,000 for cremation services, the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel reported Saturday.
Nelson said she also used the business account to buy her boyfriend a truck for $700 and to pay $7,800 to his lawyer in relation to legal proceedings involving his obligation to pay child support.
Walters told the creditors owed for prepaid funeral contracts that he could not advise them on what steps they should take next. He concluded the meeting without scheduling further proceedings.
“I don’t mean to be a smart aleck here,” Walters said, “but I think there are some people here who think that money should have been paid to them.”
