"The people of Mississippi want this tended to, they want it tended to now and they want it tended to right," Riles said. "The funeral board will see what we can do with the limited powers we have."

Riles said the Board of Funeral Service isn't authorized to conduct criminal investigations. Suspending or revoking the license of a crematory operator can take up to 60 days.

"What we need is some stronger law," he said.

Residents who took their loved ones to Seepe to be cremated have grown increasingly frustrated with the pace of the state investigation.

Families were further angered Monday on learning the contents of the trash bin outside Seepe's office were dumped Monday morning in a landfill in Canton. If human remains were in the bin, they are gone for good, landfill manager Grady Kent said.

"If it was here yesterday, it's under 200 tons (of garbage)," he said Tuesday.

Kent said state environmental regulations require all material brought to the landfill be bulldozed and covered by the end of the day. Colette Bryant, who took her sister's remains to Seepe in 2006, said she cannot believe authorities allowed the trash bin's contents to be removed.

"Wasn't that a crime scene? Why didn't they secure it and lock it up?" she said.

Investigators collected samples from the nearly full bin Friday afternoon.

Seepe came under scrutiny last week when former Seepe employee Lori Wilkinson produced photos that appear to show bone and ash being heaped from the crematory into a 55-gallon barrel to be dumped. When the pictures became public, other former employees came forward with similar allegations that Seepe commingled bones and ash in his Lorenz Boulevard crematory.

Former employee Josh Hatten reported Seepe to the funeral board last November. Hatten said Seepe gave ashes to the family of Edwin Van Every while Van Every's body still lay on a preparation table. The funeral board could not find Van Every's body when it came to inspect the crematorium.

Last week, the Van Every family filed a $5 million lawsuit against Seepe in Hinds County Circuit Court.

Riles said the funeral board submitted the photographs to Attorney General Jim Hood's office March 24 and requested an investigation. Hood's office has not confirmed an investigation is under way.

David Kingsbury of Clinton said he tried without success Tuesday to get information about the investigation. Seepe handled the cremations of his parents.

Kingsbury said he called the attorney general's office and was told he had to call the funeral board with his complaint. He said they offered to transfer him.

"They actually connected me to the Department of Education," he said. "Do you know that the lady who answered the phone at the Department of Education was more helpful?

"I want to hear somebody say, 'We are going to get justice. We are going to find out what happened,' " he said. "It seems like everybody is afraid."

Hood's office did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday. In an earlier statement, Hood described the claims as "very significant allegations" that his office takes "with the utmost seriousness."

Bryant said her conversations with Hood's office left her with little confidence the case is being taken seriously.

"She said, 'We have two investigators on this,' " Bryant said, relating the conversation she said she had with an employee in Hood's office. "That's it? Two? I know lots of people who haven't gotten a call from those two people."

Riles said the attorney general's office is not telling him anything more than anyone else.

Riles said he was upset by the news the trash bin had been removed.

"I find it depressing and demoralizing that there could be human remains in that Dumpster," he said.

Riles said families will be given an opportunity to speak when the board meets Thursday.

"Whether it's 50 or 150 on Thursday morning, the board wants to listen to them," he said. "If there are too many there, we will come out in the parking lot and talk."

Riles said he expects the board will "take our lumps," but he hopes the state will adopt tougher standards.

Riles said he wants the state to fund a full-time inspector who can keep tabs on funeral directors and crematory operators. The unpaid board members - most of whom are in the funeral business - conduct most inspections.

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