Business

Judge orders Shepherd cemetery sold on the courthouse steps

By Bill Moss, Published: February 2, 2025

The final resting place of the Shepherd family funeral business, one of the most respected Hendersonville services for more than 100 years, is likely to be the steps of the Henderson County Courthouse.

Superior Court Judge Marvin Pope on Dec. 23 ordered the public sale of Shepherd Memorial Park, the last remaining large asset of the family that transitioned to the funeral business in 1903 after first selling coffins at a furniture store. The sale is scheduled to take place at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 5.

A lawsuit brought by the North Carolina Cemetery Commission in 2021 failed to produce a resolution that would allow Melody Shepherd to retain control of the Asheville Highway cemetery, which William Shepherd founded in 1954. In previous hearings, Judge Pope had expressed reservations about ordering a sale and instead appointed a guardian ad litem to look after the property’s interest and kept on a receiver, cemetery manager Gary McDowell, who by all accounts had fixed dozens of problems and gotten the grounds into excellent condition. “The receiver has operated the cemetery well at all times since the entry of the (receivership) order” in April 2022, Pope said.

The court order also bars Melody Shepherd, the sole owner of the business and property, from being on the cemetery grounds — except to visit family members’ graves, and then only with “express written permission” of McDowell — and blocks her from “directly or indirectly” placing a bid to purchase the property or “acquiring any interest in the cemetery.”

The order cites Shepherd’s “disruptive conduct” since the receivership order three years ago, including unauthorized visits to the cemetery and the parking of personal and funeral home vehicles on the grounds. Neither Melody Shepherd nor Shepherd Memorial Park Inc. are currently qualified as licensees to operate the graveyard under the North Carolina Cemetery Act, Pope’s order said.

Attorneys withdraw

The court-ordered sale comes, too, after Melody Shepherd’s attorneys, citing a “breakdown in communication” and “unwaivable conflict of interest,” won the judge’s permission last November to withdraw as counsel. In his order granting the motion, Pope agreed that while Lindsey Law PLLC — attorneys Stephen P. Lindsay and Mary Ann J. Hollocker — had “provided valuable and competent representation” to Shepherd, the “breakdown in communication has led to a conflict of interest” making it impossible for the attorneys to continue as counsel for Shepherd. The Lightning was unable to reach Shepherd for comment, nor leave a message since her cell phone mailbox was full.

Business operations at the funeral home and cemetery suffered as Tom Shepherd’s health deteriorated starting around 2020, the N.C. Board of Funeral Service found. In December 2021, the board issued an order that shut down the funeral home, revoked the funeral director license of Thomas R. Shepherd and the crematory manager license of Melody Shepherd and referred investigators’ findings to law enforcement to determine “whether criminal charges are warranted.” (No criminal charges have been filed.) Tom Shepherd died on Dec. 31, 2021, of “major depression,” his physician said in his death certificate.

Melody Shepherd gets proceeds after costs

Shepherd herself stands to gain substantial proceeds from the sale, just as she did from the court-ordered sale of the funeral home, after payments to creditors and attorneys and other fees. A court-ordered appraisal of the memorial park set a fair-market value between $900,000 and $1.4 million “with the most likely value being $1.22 million,” Pope’s order said. He set the “likely value” as the minimum sale price and ordered that no transaction take place for less than that amount. The successful bidder must be licensed to operate a cemetery under North Carolina law.

Net proceeds of the sale would go to Melody Shepherd after deduction of plaintiff’s attorneys’ fees, payments due to the receiver and guardian ad litem and cost of the sale. Pope appointed Hendersonville auctioneer Mark White to conduct the sale.

After he became the receiver, McDowell identified $70,095 worth of grave markers that had been paid for and not placed and $6,339 worth of death dates that had not been inscribed on headstones. McDowell had since placed all but two of the markers, the judge said in December.

In addition to the cemetery grounds, the sale is to include loader-backhoes, tractors, riding mowers, trimmers, blowers, vehicles and furnishings.