Only on News 12 at 6 o'clock, October 9, 2008

AUGUSTA, Ga. --- We first told you about the Georgia State Board of Funeral Services' investigation into Dent's Undertaking Establishment. And News 12 also continues to dig.

It started with big questions over whether Dent's ever embalmed one man's body last week. Today, there are more questions than answers.

It was a day the Gowdy family will never forget "Yeah, that's disturbing," said a tearful Kahtonna Allen of the day she came to Dent's Undertaking Establishment to view her grandfather's body.

The conditions of 74-year-old Joshua Gowdy are too graphic for News 12 to show.

"We shouldn't have to go in and smell our father and see him bleeding out the ear. He wasn't in no wreck, he shouldn't be bleeding out the nose and ear," added Franklin Dunn, Gowdy's stepson.

Richmond County's Coroner says Gowdy died of a heart attack Wednesday morning, October 1st, while asleep.

Around noon, his body was picked up from his home by W H Mays Mortuary. Then, the Gowdy family requested it be transferred to Dent's, and it was, around 5:45 that same evening.

The big question, was Mr. Gowdy ever embalmed once his body got to Dent's?

"The time frame, and I keep going to it, as to when a licensed professional actually started work -- if one ever started work at all," says W H Mays III with W H Mays Mortuary. Mays says his employees picked Mr. Gowdy up from his Bennock Mill Road home around noon. They then took his body to their mortuary and placed it in an air conditioned room, while they continued on with a previously scheduled funeral service.

Mays says when he returned to the office between 2 o'clock and 3 o'clock that afternoon, there was already a message from the Gowdy family requesting a transfer to Dent's. Mays says in accordance with Georgia law, he agreed to the family's wishes and thus did not preform any further services on Mr. Gowdy, including embalming.

Mays says his office transferred Gowdy's body as a courtesy for the family and it was at Dent's no later than 5:45 that same evening. Mays also says he told Dent's that Mr. Gowdy had not yet been embalmed when they turned him over to Dent's care.

News 12 asked Frank Griffin, who identified himself as the owner of Dent's, who the licensed embalmer is for the funeral home. He refused to tell us.

We also found that Dent's has seven outstanding death certificates since mid-July, when the state shut them down for back taxes. There could be more.

The one death certificate we were able to acquire from that time is for an elderly woman. According to her papers, Treye Sharpe embalmed her. Problem is, Sharpe isn't a licensed embalmer in Georgia. He has a current license in South Carolina.

Georgia law (O.C.G.A § 31-10-20 (a)) says Dent's would need a permit to cross state lines with a body. Richmond County Vital Records tells News 12 they did not issue a Permit For The Disposition of Human Remains in this case.

"We thought it was legit, but we come to find out, if you got a body, don't bring it to Dent's. Carry it anywhere accept Dent's. Don't bring Dent's no body," Dunn said.

News 12 spoke with Frank Griffin on the phone today. We asked him about the permit. He admitted he knew he had to have one to take a body across state lines, but when we asked him for a copy of it, Griffin hung up on us.