HBO’s ‘The Mortician’ Pulls a ‘Jinx’ With Surprise Murder Confession

The world’s current true-crime obsession is HBO’s new documentary series The Mortician, which concluded its three-episode run on Sunday. The series dives deep into the dark deeds of David Sconce and the Lamb Family Funeral Home, which included the desecration, mishandling, and intentional mixing of tens of thousands of human remains. Sconce is also suspected of several murders, but as they show in The Mortician, there is not quite enough evidence to convict.

However, in what is perhaps the most sinister minute in a true-crime documentary ever, Sconce himself vaguely confesses to three murders right to the camera. Viewers are comparing the near-confession to another popular HBO true-crime series, The Jinx, in which real-estate icon and convicted murderer Robert Durst confessed on camera to a third murder for which he had previously been acquitted. What exactly did Sconce admit to in the Morticians’ final moments, and what does it mean for his current probation status?

What Happens in ‘The Mortician’?

In the 1980s, David Sconce took The Lamb Family Funeral Home over from his parents. Under his direction, the employees of the crematorium would burn bodies well beyond the capacity of the ovens. At peak “operation,” Sconce’s employees were instructed to burn 150–200 bodies at a time, requiring them to break or disfigure them to fit them all in. The result would be an indiscernible co-mingling of ashes that the Lamb Funeral Home would simply scoop up and hand back to people’s loved ones as if they were the deceased’s ashes.

Beyond that, Sconce and his constituents would frequently rob corpses of their valuables, particularly gold teeth, and eventually even their organs, and sell them for profit. The Lamb Funeral Home managed to conduct 25,000 cremations in just five years before they were shut down. The conduct exhibited by Sconce, his family, and employees was so terrible, new laws and felonies were created regarding the handling of human remains.

Sconce pleaded guilty to (some of) his crimes in 1989, and he would be in and out of prison for years to come. Now, however, he is a free man. Notably, throughout The Mortician, several former employees who are interviewed suggest that Sconce was likely directly responsible for a few deaths himself. One anonymous interviewee states that he believes that Sconce murdered three people.

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A particular case, that of the potential poisoning of rival mortician Timothy Waters, went particularly far in court, but Sconce was acquitted. According to several sources, Sconce bragged vaguely about committing the crime and getting away with it, but Waters’ autopsy was too inconclusive to indict. However, it might not take an autopsy for us to know whether Sconce was behind the crime.

A Chilling (Almost?) Murder Confession

While the details of the David Sconce story are public information, it is Sconce’s willing participation in The Mortician that makes it so sinister and so worth watching. Through testimonies from victims, past employees, and family members, you really get a sense of Sconce’s sociopathic tendencies and how easily he baited people into a sense of security. Throughout The Mortician, Sconce shows no remorse for his actions, and he has a logistical/financial justification for all the unspeakable acts he committed in running the Lamb Funeral Home. Of course, the only “unsolved” piece of the puzzle is whether Sconce is actually a murderer. Well, true to form, it seems that Sconce could not resist a public opportunity to brag about his exploits.

At the very (very) end of The Mortician, the camera crew tells Sconce that they “need to reload” (the camera). Sconce then proceeds to say, “I can tell you more of this, but I can’t tell you on camera. I can’t tell you. All I can say is, do you think I found that guy? It’s one of the things I can’t talk about. The other thing I’ll tell you about, too, but can’t talk about that either. Really, there’s three of them altogether.”

At this point, The Mortician cuts back to the clip of the anonymous former employee who mentioned three possible murder victims. The cameraman, Joshua Rofé, then proceeds to tell Sconce that he “doesn’t want to know then….not interested in having that information.” Sconce then laughs to himself and says, “Ah, it’s never gonna come back. Never gonna come back. Can’t come back.”

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While this was not an overt murder confession and, according to experts, likely cannot further incriminate Sconce in any way, it is consistent with testimonies about his willingness to boast about the crime. Seeing Sconce attempt to deliver this bombshell as if it is something to showboat is extremely disquieting. Rofé commented on the incident to the Hollywood Reporter: “When I first told the execs at HBO what happened, the way I categorized it was, I think this is really accurate: ‘With a wink and a nod, he’s making these admissions.'” Though the outcome may still be nebulous, Sconce’s confession certainly made The Mortician an unforgettable true crime experience.

The Mortician is now streaming on Max.