The body of a man found a year ago in a south suburban garage amid other bodies and human remains has finally been identified, the Cook County medical examiner's office said Friday. Family members called it the end of a "horror story."
Pompey Hicks, III, of Oak Park, was 51 when he died on September 30, 2011 from an accidental methadone and alcohol intoxication, according to a statement from Cook County medical examiner.
After Hicks' body was autopsied, he was released to Living Waters funeral home on October 4, 2011, "a funeral director that met all requirements," the medical examiner's statement said.
Since then, his son, Pompey Hicks, IV, said he has fought to receive the remains of his father, who was supposed to be cremated by Anton Godfrey at Living Waters Funeral Home. The son filed a law suit against Godfrey in 2015, three weeks before Godfrey died of a heart attack, authorities said.
"Mr. Godfrey agreed to cremate my father, put him in the urn and return my father to me, which never happened," the son said. "It became like this game, 'I have your father, I have his remains, I'm going to give him back to you,' but that never was the case."
In September 2015, days after Godfrey died, and four years after Hick's death, Godfrey's wife claims she discovered the bodies in their garage, not having known about them before.
A Tribune report at the time said Anton Godfrey was "the subject of multiple court orders to cease and desist his in-home mortuary practices," according to Illinois State Police.
It is unclear the relationship Godfrey had to Living Waters.
"We're still trying to unravel the exact relationships with everybody," said Hicks' attorney, Kevin O'Connor, of the Elmhurst firm O'Connor and O'Connor, PC.
The attorney said there was another funeral director affiliated with Living Waters at the time.
When news broke of Godfrey's wife finding the four bodies, along with cremains, and a container of organs, Hicks, IV thought his father may be among them. However, he thought he heard that all four bodies had been identified, and figured his dad was not there, he said. In his mind, though, he always new his dad was still missing.
Friday, when the son heard that his father's body had been identified, he called the news "a relief."
"It's definitely a relief for me, because I would argue with that man (Godfrey)," he said. "I've been fighting to get my father's remains. It's a relief for the whole family."
The other three bodies were identified as 38-year-old Torrence Henderson, who died in July 2011 of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; 62-year-old Ruby Jackson, who died in August 2013 of a cerebrovascular accident; and 50-year-old Bridgette Godfrey, who died in February 2013 of anoxic encephalopathy due to respiratory failure due to bronchial asthma, the statement said.
The cremains were identified as Andre D. Mabrey, 44, who died Nov. 2013. The cause of death is not available.
"A container of organs that was found in the garage remains unidentified as DNA could not be recovered from the organs," the statement said.
Erin Gallagher is a freelance reporter. Vikki Ortiz Healy and Angie Leventis Lourgos contributed to this report.