Ogdensburg funeral director faces forgery charge

An Ogdensburg funeral home director was charged Monday with felony second-degree forgery in connection with an insurance company payment from a dead person's funeral fund.

Patricia L. Murray, 40, of 337 Proctor Ave., of Fox & Murray Funeral Home, 428 Franklin St., was charged by Ogdensburg police with second-degree forgery, a felony. She pleaded not guilty in City Court and was released on her own recognizance by Judge George E. Silver, who adjourned her case until Nov. 17.

According to Ogdensburg Police Detective Sgt. Harry J. McCarthy, Mrs. Murray has been accused of signing her own name and allegedly forging the signatures of City Clerk Kathleen A. Bouchard and a physician to a woman's death certificate in September 2008. Those signatures are required to release funds from a deceased person's "pre-need trust account" with an insurance company to pay for funeral expenses.

The $1,104.39 payment was made when Fox & Murray was known as Fox-McLellan Funeral Home.

Reached at her office Monday afternoon, Mrs. Murray said she didn't understand the charge against her.

Mr. McCarthy said the forgery accusation came to light when the actual death certificate was filed by Frary Funeral Home, Ogdensburg, which took over the funeral arrangements from Fox-McLellan.

"Somebody blew the whistle," Mr. McCarthy said.

The presence of both the authentic and allegedly bogus death certificates also was noticed by Mrs. Bouchard's office and the U.S. Bureau of Vital Statistics