A woman from Monmouth County says state regulators couldn't tell her what happened to thousands of dollars she prepaid to a now-closed funeral home - and a Kane In Your Corner investigation finds she's not the only one having trouble getting answers.

Esther and Larry Clifton had been married for 34 years when he died in 2008.

After laying him to rest, Clifton decided to prepay for her own funeral.

"I didn't want my kids to have to worry about taking care of that," she says.

Clifton put down a $3,500 deposit with Child's Funeral Home in Tinton Falls. But a few years later, the funeral home closed. Under New Jersey law, prepaid funeral funds must be placed in dedicated accounts or used to purchase funeral insurance, but Clifton and her family had no idea where her money had gone. She contacted the New Jersey Board of Mortuary Sciences, which oversees funeral homes, for help. But nearly seven years passed, and the board just kept sending emails saying the complaint was still being investigated.

Clifton's daughter, Alicia Hammary, finally had enough.

"I said, 'You know what, I think I'm going to contact News 12, contact Kane in Your Corner, to see if there's any way that we can get some kind of help to get some resolve to this matter'," Hammary says.

Kane In Your Corner contacted the Board of Mortuary Sciences, which is part of the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs, and learned the board is not even investigating Clifton's complaint.

Last year, the board suspended the license of Clifton's former funeral director, Heather Childs, saying she had failed to deposit prepaid funds from at least two other families. Once that happened, a spokesperson said Clifton's case was deemed closed.

This isn't the first time Kane In Your Corner has seen consumer complaints to state licensing boards drag on for years with little or no action.

In 2019, News 12 told you how some families prepaid for gravesites at Holmdel Cemetery, only to find, when it came time to use them, that other people were already buried there.

The cemetery's management company blamed outdated maps.

The NJ Cemetery Board opened an investigation. More than six years later, the board says that the investigation is still ongoing.

Dena Mottola Jaborska, of New Jersey Citizen Action, says it's "totally egregious" for state regulatory boards to take this long to investigate consumer complaints.

"The regulatory boards that oversee a lot of industries are peopled by people who are from the industry," Jaborska says. "So, they're loathe to really go after their colleagues in the industry and for that reason they often will sit on a consumer complaint and not take quick action."

Kane In Your Corner attempted to ask Clifton's former funeral director what happened to her money but was unable to contact her. As for why licensing boards take so long to investigate complaints, a spokesperson says it “depends on many factors,” including whether the board requests additional information, expands the investigation or pursues disciplinary action.

If you're considering prepaying for a funeral, the NJDCA recommends you get a written agreement spelling out what you paid and where the money was deposited. Then, be sure to get a financial statement at least once a year.

It's advice Esther Clifton wishes someone had given her before it was too late.

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