JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Allegations that the owner of a Jackson crematorium dumped the bones and ashes from numerous bodies into a barrel and returned the wrong remains has devastated families and prompted demands for an investigation.

“May God have mercy on him because I won’t,” said Tammie Holley, an attorney from New Orleans who said her stepsister was cremated in 2006 at Seepe Funeral Home and Crematorium.

Lori Wilkinson, a former employee of the facility, said she was horrified to see owner Mark Seepe shoveling bones onto a wheelbarrow after cremations, then dumping the load in a yellow 55-gallon drum. She took pictures of the open drum on March 17, then quit her job and contacted authorities.

Seepe did not respond to a message left Thursday by The Associated Press. He has denied the allegations.

Wilkinson took more than a dozen photographs after repairmen working on the crematorium discovered that bones had spilled from the retort, which collects the ashes.

“They said they couldn’t do anything until he removed the bones,” Wilkinson said. “(Seepe) left and went and got a wheelbarrow and dumped them in this 55-gallon drum like it was nothing.”

Wilkinson contacted the Mississippi State Board of Funeral Service. Other employees of the crematorium soon came forward with similarly disturbing stories.

Charles Riles, the funeral board’s chairman, said the photographs clearly show bones that were mixed with the remains of at least several others. He said a proper cremation would leave no large bones.

“The number of these bones would not be from one or two human remains, they would be from more,” Riles said after reviewing the pictures. “Of course, I can’t tell you how many more because I have no idea.”

Riles also said that Josh Hatten, a former employee of the crematorium, filed a complaint in November, claiming that Seepe gave remains to a family before their relative had even been cremated. The family of the late Edwin Van Every is suing for $5 million.

The allegations have raised deep concerns of families in Mississippi and elsewhere in the South who used the crematorium and who are left wondering if the ashes they were given belong to their loved ones.

“You just don’t think that this is going to happen to you. He got my sister’s body. I was supposed to get my sister’s ashes back,” said Colette Bryant, whose sister, Marian Connell, was cremated in November 2006. “I don’t know that I’ve got my sister’s ashes. I might have cats and dogs and Joe Blow’s ashes for all I know.”

Unfortunately, DNA is likely destroyed even during a botched cremation so there is little hope that the families will ever know for certain if they got the proper remains, Riles said. The funeral board has fielded 50-75 calls a day from people since Wilkinson came forward with her photographs earlier this week.

“When I look at these bones I see people, I don’t see bones. The questions I ask are, ’Who are these people? Why are they there? And what was to have been their final destination?”’ Riles said. “People call and ask me terribly poignant questions: ’Is this my baby? Is this my child? Is this my family member?’ And the answer to that is, ’We cannot positively tell you, but we pray so.”’

Riles is urging Attorney General Jim Hood to investigate. Hood won’t say whether he will.

“Needless to say, these are very significant allegations that we do not take lightly,” Hood said in a statement. “At present it is our policy to neither confirm nor deny an investigation, but any matter brought to the attention of this office is always taken with the utmost seriousness.”

Civil lawsuits are likely to follow.

Attorney Kelly Kyle is advertising in The Clarion-Ledger, the state’s largest newspaper, for people to call him if they used the crematorium. He said he hopes to file at least one lawsuit by next week at which time he’ll file for discovery.

Asked if he has taken many calls about the crematorium, Kyle said, “that’s about all I’ve done for the last two days.”

Holley, the New Orleans attorney whose stepsister was cremated at Seepe’s facility, says she’s planning to sue as well.