Pet owners demand justice after funeral director accused of throwing out animals’ bodies

By Meghan Schiller

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    PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Pet owners in Pittsburgh are fighting for answers after a funeral director threw out thousands of pets’ bodies and gave people different ashes, prosecutors said on Monday.

The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General says Patrick Vereb, the owner of Vereb Funeral Home and Eternity Pet Memorial, is accused of stealing more than $650,000 from over 6,500 customers who paid for pet burial and cremation services between 2021 and 2024.

“I saw the story pinned from KDKA on Facebook,” Kelly Goldman, of West Mifflin, said.

Goldman started reading KDKA’s articles and comments.

“I saw his name, and I was like, Oh, my goodness,” Goldman said. “I had worked at Michael’s a long time ago, and he would come into the store a lot and get those frames that he used to put the remains in.”

She is one of 3,000-plus local pet owners who paid for Vereb’s Eternity Pet Memorial and already filled out the form on the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office website, looking to find out if their animal was involved.

“We had two,” Goldman said. “One is mine. Her name was Chelsea, a yellow lab, and then my mom had her seeing eye dog, which was a black lab named Fawn.”

She’s left now staring at the clear baggies she never questioned before Monday, noticing they have no tags and no cremation ID numbers.

“We trusted him to do that,” Goldman said, “and to give us back our pet, saying that they were in a private cremation, you will definitely get your pet back. And now we don’t know.”

Many pet parents reached out to KDKA Investigates, saying they know Vereb dealt with their pet, but they didn’t find their vet listed on the AG’s website.

“And the article where they said the smaller animals were improperly treated, it was just even worse because she was our tiny, little 10-pound Yorkie,” Mistick said.

Amber Mistick said she’s waiting to hear back from the AG’s office after she said her vet asked to get added to the list. Her Yorkie, Joy, bonded fiercely with her oldest daughter.

“That was her dog, and she was the best dog ever,” Mistick said. “I’m absolutely devastated. I’m devastated for her. I’m devastated that I had to reopen that for her. Because right before I got on with you, I had to call her and tell her.”

KDKA’s Meghan Schiller asked Mistick, “Are you glad that you know, or would you never have wanted to know that this occurred?”

“I’m glad that it came to light only because, well, like I said, the chances of him getting caught were slim to none,” she said. “But they were never nonexistent. So, I’m glad we found out now.”

Attorney General Sunday hopes investigation will provide answers

Pennsylvania Attorney General Dave Sunday hopes his office’s investigation into the case will provide answers for pet owners.

“Since the launch of the website, we’ve had over 3,800 form submissions on the website,” Sunday said. “And so that’s a lot. We have not seen anything like this before in the AG’s office.”

He said the website is key because it’s putting his office in a position to contact victims and collect their information.

“We want victims or potential victims to be able to go to the website and to fill out the information so that we have it, so that we can contact them,” Sunday said. “We want them to be able to fill out victim impact forms about how this has impacted them.”

That’s why he’s asking for everyone, even if your pet’s death didn’t fall within the years listed or your vet isn’t currently listed, to still submit. He says the current criteria are based on the current facts of the investigation.

“We would rather have someone submit and provide their information and put us in a position where we can say to them, ‘Hey, you’re not a victim’ than someone to sit out there and worry so much about something like this,” Sunday said.

KDKA’s Meghan Schiller asked: “I’m also just curious to people who have buried their human loved ones using this funeral home. Do they have any cause for concern?”

“Not that I know of,” Attorney General Sunday said.

Sunday says his office is working in real time to reply to people. And as a pet parent himself, he takes these allegations against Vereb seriously.

“It’s very tragic and sad,” said Attorney General Sunday. “Thank you for reporting on this, and we are doing everything we can to identify as many victims as possible and follow the facts and the law.”

KDKA also asked Sunday about a consumer investigation since many asked about civil charges, trying to recoup their money back, since many fear they didn’t get the services they paid for. He didn’t want to talk about where the investigation is going to lead his office, but he added they’re doing everything to make the victims whole.

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