American homicide suspect; accused of soliciting killers to remove a rival and to murder his grandparents. The Lamb Funeral Home was founded by Lawrence Lamb. His daughter Laurieanne Lamb Sconce began assuming control in the mid-’70s. She gradually brought her husband Jerry into the business, and their son David, age 26, in 1982, when he became manager of a branch, the Pasadena Crematorium.
On 7/01/1984, David leased the Pasadena Crematorium from his mom, operating the business as his own.
It was a competitive operation and David attempted to buy out several rival companies. When David saw Ron Hast as a threat, Hast was mysteriously beaten up on 8/23/1984 along with his housemate, Stephen Nimz. During that autumn, David allegedly told a friend that he planned to kill his grandfather by poison.
On 2/12/1985, two hired thugs, hired by David for $1,000, beat up Tim Waters, the owner of a rival crematorium service. On 4/08/1985, Waters was found dead. The autopsy stated liver edema due to obesity. On 8/01/1985, Ron Jordan was found hanging in his Newport Beach apartment, a month after leaving Lamb Funeral Home. His death was listed as a suicide.
During the late summer of 1985, David proposed opening an eye-and-tissue bank along with Joyji “George” Bristol. On 9/30/1985, Laurieanne Sconce purchased the Lamb Funeral Home from her dad.
A former employee reported improper activities at the funeral home and crematorium to the Dept of Health on 6/09/1986. The recommendation to investigate was apparently lost in bureaucratic papers. The Department approved David’s permit to harvest human eyes and tissue for transplants on 6/17/1986.
In October, David began cremating bodies in Hesperia at Oscar’s Ceramics, telling officials that he was making tiles in the ovens. On 11/23/1986, workers loaded 38 bodies together into the two furnaces at Pasadena Crematorium and the overload caused a fire. David shifted his entire operation to Oscar’s Ceramics. On 1/20/1987, the fire department raided Oscar’s Ceramics. A week later, six law firms filed suit against David and the Crematorium, claiming the mishandling of bodies.
On January 29, David and his dad were both arrested in connection with the removal of gold teeth from cadavers. The Lamb Funeral Home was raided by investigators on February 11, and their books were seized on February 18th. David was arrested on 3/09/1987. On 6/08/1987, David, along with his mom and dad, were charged with 41 counts of mutilating bodies, the theft of body parts and dental gold, forgery and embezzlement, falsification of death certificates, multiple cremations and commingling remains. There was also evidence of skimming $100,000 from funeral accounts and buying perjured testimony.
On 5/09/1988, David was ordered to stand trial on charges of assaulting three morticians and soliciting the murders of his grandparents and Prosecutor Lewis. He was also charged with conspiracy to murder.
On 8/30/1989, David pled guilty to 20 charges and was sentenced to five years in prison. With time off for good behavior, his effective sentence was 2 1/2 years.
On 2/09/1990, David was charged with the murder of Tim Waters and was ordered to stand trial. With legal entanglements, he was released from jail on 4/04/1990, free for the first time since he surrendered to authorities on 6/08/1987. He left California for Arizona. On 6/05/1990 he filed a claim for $1.25 million in damages, claiming false arrest.
As of 10/28/1990, neither David nor his parents have been tried on any of the charges pending. A relative took over the funeral and cremation business and David moved away, incognito. No further updates were available in March 2000.