DALLAS – The photograph emailed to Spectrum News 1 and at least 187 others is disturbing.

It appears to depict decaying corpses stacked two, perhaps three deep, packed into an unrefrigerated rental truck. Other photos purport to show corpses crammed into tight spaces in a funeral home back room, surrounded by filth.

The photographs were allegedly taken at the Golden Gate Funeral Home located in southern Dallas, its vast fleet of sleek, white hearses highly visible from Interstate 35.

The most disturbing photograph was attached to an email dated February 5, 2021, widely distributed to local and state officials as part of a whistleblowing effort by former Golden Gate Funeral Home employee Isaiah Darris.

The photo, allegedly taken last fall, depicts what Darris says are decaying corpses, stacked in a rental truck parked at the Golden Gate Funeral Home loading dock. He says the storing of bodies in an unrefrigerated trailer is not only unethical but a potential violation of state law that stipulates: “if final disposition will not occur within 24 hours, a body must be embalmed, refrigerated, or placed in an approved, sealed container."

“From the looks of that U-Haul trailer, that could be your mother or my mother, my father, my grandmother, " said Darris. “The body that was face down with no clothes on, that’s very inappropriate.”

Darris supplied Spectrum News 1 with other photos he says he took depicting deplorable conditions inside the funeral home in an overcrowded morgue and wherever else bodies could be kept. Darris says only some of the bodies were embalmed, others were simply left exposed, on stretchers and on cots on the floor.

“There are bodies outside in the garage,” said Darris. “They’ve been all in the hallway blocking the doors, blocking the exit doors. It’s like a slaughterhouse. Unless you go behind the scenes and see it you would never think that just being from being up front that it looks the way that it does in the back. And this is not just something that’s been going on since I have been there.”

According to Darris, in his emailed complaint, “Golden Gate Funeral home needs to be investigated and held accountable for the way they treat the deceased. Over the duration of the six months I have been employed at Golden Gate they have not followed any of the state and federal rules.”

Golden Gate owner John Beckwith denies breaking any laws or having any knowledge of the conditions described by Darris.

“I’ve never used a U-Haul for storage, I never have and never will,” said Beckwith. “I’m telling you that didn’t happen here. That (rental truck photo) was staged by Isaiah himself or whoever took the picture.”

As to the allegation and photographs of multiple unattended and uncared for corpses on gurneys inside the facility, Beckwith accuses Darris, whom he said had recently been fired by one of his employees, of deliberately trying to sabotage his business.

“Looks like he kind of staged some things and took a sheet off of somebody’s head,” said Beckwith. “I don’t have a problem with that photo. I do have a problem with a person who would expose a deceased person like that.”

Beckwith says he’s not aware of any other complaints against Golden Gate.

Kyle Smith, staff attorney for the Texas Funeral Services Commission, told Spectrum News 1 the agency, which regulates the funeral industry in Texas, received Darris’ email in early February. He says agency officials have discussed its contents and are “looking into the matter.” It’s not clear if an official investigation has been opened and officials are prohibited from disclosing the existence of an official investigation.

Darris says he is corresponding with officials with the Texas Funeral Service Commission. But he says he remains skeptical that a thorough investigation will be conducted. He says he wasn’t fired from Golden Gate but walked away from his job last month when the conditions persisted. He says he is going public because what remains behind is an unacceptable, unthinkable nightmare.

“It’s sad and unfortunate because you would think that when your loved one passes away that they are in good hands sending them to Golden Gate not knowing the things that are taking place behind the scenes,” said Darris.