An East Syracuse funeral home employee has been arrested for grand larceny after stealing nearly $200,000.

In December 2021, it was reported to the DeWitt Police Criminal Investigations Division that an employee of Delaney, Greabell, Adydan & Bentz Funeral Home had been stealing from the business since September 2018, police said.

The man, identified as John M. Forbes, 35, had been working as a funeral director at the parlor located at 241 Kinne St.

During his employment with the funeral home, he either directly stole or fraudulently discounted at least 41 payments of cash and checks made to the business, police said.

It was also revealed that Forbes charged personal transactions on a credit card belonging to the funeral home in the total of $10,784.61, bringing the amount that Forbes allegedly stole from the business to $184,352.99.

Forbes additionally failed to make record of at least three pre-funeral services that were paid for in cash by customers, thereby omitting entries that were supposed to be made in the business records, as is required by the New York State Department of Health Bureau of Funeral Directing and also internal company procedures.

Forbes marked several customers’ accounts as paid in full in the funeral home’s computer record system in attempts to conceal the theft, police said.

Earlier today, the town’s investigation division located Forbes at a residence in Truxton, NY and took him into custody without incident. Forbes was then transported to the DeWitt police station where he confessed to the crimes. He awaits arraignment at the Onondaga County Justice Center.

Delaney, Greabell, Adydan & Bentz Funeral Home has been in contact with families that may have been affected by the theft, but the business’ representatives do not believe that there are any outstanding families that have been victimized, police said.

The Dewitt Police Department encourages anyone with more information to contact them by phone at (315) 449-3640 or by email at [email protected].