2 employees fired at overcrowded morgue

Two people were fired at Chicago's Cook County morgue after a review that was launched by news reports of bodies piling up in a storage cooler, officials said. A spokeswoman for county board President Toni Preckwinkle said the employees were fired Wednesday, a day after they were suspended, the Chicago Tribune reported. A third employee of the office is facing disciplinary action. The Cook County sheriff's office said one of the dismissed employees, Joel Neason, 58, an autopsy technician, was charged with simple assault after he allegedly threatened to return with a gun. The Tribune said Preckwinkle ordered a review of operations after learning a cooler designed to hold 300 bodies was filled with has many as 363. Photos sent to the media showed bodies stacked on top of each other. Most of the bodies were wrapped in blue plastic but in several cases their limbs were showing, the newspaper said. Medical examiner Nancy Jones said last month the overcrowding was a temporary issue caused by the suspension last summer of state funds used to cover burial costs for the poor. The funding has since been restored.