Lamb Funeral Home Was Pasadena’s Most Trusted — Until David Sconce Took Over

The Lamb Funeral Home stepped back into the national spotlight after HBO released a three-part docuseries, The Mortician, which premiered in June 2025. The series centers on what was once considered one of the most respected funeral homes in Pasadena, Calif., dating back to the 1920s, until it became riddled with scandal in the 1980s and '90s, unraveling its pristine reputation.

According to the documentary, it was so bad that its operator, David Sconce, ended up serving 10 years behind bars and was released on parole in 2023.

Before David got involved, the Lamb Funeral Home was regarded as one of the most prestigious in the area, and built on a foundation of "family and Christian values." And after he came into the picture, that all changed. So what exactly happened at the Lamb Funeral Home?

The Lamb Funeral Home became widely known for scandal after David Sconce took over the family business, which had been passed down to his mother, Laurieann, from her father, Lawrence Lamb. For years, it was considered one of the most trusted funeral homes in Pasadena. The family even operated their own crematory, the Pasadena Crematory, located on the grounds of Mountain View Cemetery. And that, it seems, is where the scandal began.

While attending mortuary school, David said he realized the family’s crematory presented a major business opportunity. Most other funeral homes didn’t have their own cremation facilities and had to rely on those that did. So, he decided to offer crematory services at a more competitive rate to bring in more business.

By 1982, he began expanding that side of the family business. Sounds like a good idea, right? Not when you consider this.

Back in 1981, before the expansion, the funeral home handled just 194 cremations. But by the following year when David began implementing the expansion, that number skyrocketed to 1,675, according to the HBO documentary. That's a big increase! And here's why it was a problem.

The operator of the Mountain View Cemetery noted in the documentary that a typical crematory could only perform about four cremations per day. But David, well, he’d show up with 15 to 20 bodies at once, and just a few hours later, he’d return with another load. Clearly, something was off.

As it turns out, David was cremating multiple bodies at the same time, essentially mixing people’s loved ones together and handing their families a blend of ashes. His former "right-hand man" admitted it started with two or three bodies at a time, but eventually increased to as many as 15.

A former driver spoke out as well, revealing that in order to fit all the bodies into the crematory, "they’d break a collarbone, or a leg, or an arm to get it into the most compact position." He described them using a meat hook, the kind used to move sides of beef, to drag the bodies into the chamber by the armpit.

He claimed David even turned it into a competition with his assistant to see who could cram more bodies in at once.

And it didn’t stop there. David was also accused of stealing valuables and personal belongings from the deceased, something that, to him, didn’t seem like a big deal. But when you put it all together, it was clear he had absolutely no respect for the dead.