Funeral home director accused of stealing payments from seniors to support gambling habit

A Washington County funeral home director is accused of stealing $340,000 from her senior clients, in part, to support her gambling habit, the Pennsylvania attorney general said Thursday.

Lynn S. Taucher, 56, of Burgettstown is charged with 46 felony counts of theft by failure to make required disposition of funds, three misdemeanor counts of the same offense and one count each of forgery and insurance fraud.

Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro said Taucher collected advance payments from 49 clients to cover their funeral expenses at Taucher Funeral Home.  She allegedly put that money into her personal account, something investigators said she'd done since the funeral home opened in 2006.

"This is a complicated case, involving dozens of victims, many of them elderly and infirm," Washington County District Attorney Eugene Vittone said.

RAW VIDEO: Attorney general holds news conference about funeral director accused of theft

Instead of placing the money in individual escrow accounts as required by state law, Taucher co-mingled the funds with her personal finances and misappropriated her clients' money, investigators from the Attorney General's Office said in a criminal complaint.

"This defendant betrayed dozens of elderly people who placed their trust in her," Shapiro said at a news conference Thursday at Washington City Hall. "Many of the victims here are frail, living on fixed incomes and set aside this money so their funeral would not be a burden on their families. Instead, they were taken advantage of, and that's wrong."

In a criminal complaint, Taucher told investigators she spent up to $500 a week gambling. Her attorney, Jeff Weinburg, said on Thursday, "We've been forthcoming and cooperating with the investigation from the beginning. No one will lose a dime."

Weinberg said an escrow account with the prepaid money was created last year, and there's enough to cover the 49 alleged victims listed in the complaint.

The attorney general said his office will move forward with the charges, even if the people are repaid.

"The majority of these victims that we've discovered are in nursing homes. These are frail individuals who are on fixed incomes who were taken advantage of by Taucher," Shapiro said.

Shapiro said attorney general investigators believe that there could be other potential victims and are encouraging anyone who believes that they or a loved one was victimized to contact OAG. Potential victims can call 412-565-2192 for OAG's Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

Vittone said that before anyone plans a funeral, he or she should:

• Ensure that the funeral home director provides an itemized cost statement for all services, including advance payments for outside vendors, such as obituary notices in newspapers.
• When making any advance payment, request the information on the escrow account and the financial institution where it is held to make sure funds are properly deposited.
• Anyone with a complaint should contact the Pennsylvania Funeral Home Directors Association or the Office of Attorney General's Bureau of Consumer Protection at 800-441-2555.
• Make sure you review a general price list before signing any contract or agreement. Make sure to review the list against other price lists obtained from other funeral providers.

Taucher’s bail was set at $20,000 unsecured at a preliminary arraignment. She waived a preliminary hearing.

Stay with Channel 11 News and WPXI.com for continuing coverage. 

Cox Media Group