Local News

Fort Worth's "Undertaker Twins" Still Working Funerals

February 4, 2015 / 9:50 PM CST / CBS Texas

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FORT WORTH (CBSDFW.COM) - Rachel and Dondre Johnson are charged with criminal theft. Police and prosecutors believe they took people's money, promised a proper funeral, but didn't deliver. Derrick Johnson, Dondre's brother, was never charged in the case.

More than six months after police found five dead bodies rotting in the Johnson Family Mortuary in Fort Worth, the CBS 11 I-Team has uncovered the Johnson twins are working funerals again. This time they're working with a funeral home 87 miles away in Sherman, Texas.

Undercover Meeting:
Travis Mitchell, Serenity Chapel Funeral Services: "You kinda got to understand their position. Their attorneys are telling them..."
Mireya Villarreal, CBS 11 Investigative Reporter: "Lay low?"
Travis Mitchell: "But if it's in you, the only way to get it out is to do it. You know? This is what we live to do."

Travis Mitchell is the owner of serenity chapel funeral services in Sherman. We met up with him in fort worth to discuss his funeral business and relationship with derrick and Dondre Johnson.

Undercover Meeting:
Travis Mitchell: "We'll handle all the business as far as you and me. And on the funeral, they'll be over. They'll do the funeral."

Mitchell sent us this video as proof he worked a funeral with the Johnson twins in Odessa a few weeks ago. He also showed us pictures taken in the last month and posted on Facebook after funeral services.

Undercover Meeting:
Travis Mitchell: "The reason why they are not here is because they are trying to stay away from the media."

During their meeting, Mitchell explained to our undercover crew how the three of them work together.

Undercover Meeting:
Travis Mitchell: "I sub-contract. Subcontract, that's the best way to put it. And then I just write them a check."

The Texas Funeral Service Commission has made it clear, the Johnson family is not supposed to work in the funeral business.

That's probably why Mitchell is careful not to call the twins his employees.

Undercover Meeting:
Travis Mitchell: "People can twist your words."
Mireya Villarreal: "Yea. Absolutely."
Travis Mitchell: "Ok. Well he said such and such. No, he said they'll be there out of support. He didn't say that they'll be there doing anything. But they'll be there in "support"."

But Lupe Vasquez says her family never got the support they were promised by the Johnson family Mortuary in Fort Worth.

"I think they just knew we were weak. We were vulnerable," Vasquez told us.

Vasquez lost her sister Victoria last June. Her body was one of the five found inside the Johnson Family Mortuary. Vasquez says the funeral home took the family's money, had a small service, but never turned over the ashes.

"If we had known any better we would have done whatever we could to go through a different facility," Vasquez said.

After our undercover meeting with Travis Mitchell, I-Team Reporter Mireya Villarreal asked him to help set up a meeting between her and Dondre Johnson in Arlington. Within seconds of seeing her face, Johnson took off.

Surveillance cameras captured the meeting in the parking lot and Johnson speeding away. They have since refused to answer any of our questions.

"I don't think they need to be practicing any of this. I don't think they need to open their own business. I don't think they should be sharing with anybody," Vasquez added after we told her about the Johnson twins working funerals again. "They shouldn't be doing this to other families."

We have shared our findings with the Texas Funeral Service Commission and the Tarrant County District Attorney's office. Both are looking into the matter.

Rachel and Dondre Johnson's theft case has not gone to trial yet. But if they are found guilty they face two years in prison.