In late August 2026, a rumor spread online that police raided and shut down a funeral home in Weston, Missouri, for operating as a "necrophilia brothel."
For example, a Facebook page called Post Of The Day shared the claim on Aug. 22 (archived), adding more details about the alleged crimes. The caption read, in part:
Authorities in Weston, Missouri say an alleged necrophilia brothel was shut down Thursday night after deputies received a tip about illicit after-hours activity at a small funeral home.
[ ... ]
According to investigators, three men were found in separate rooms with corpses in various stages of decomposition. Police said a funeral home employee is accused of organizing the encounters and giving customers access after closing.
(Bowlin Media / Post Of The Day on Facebook)
The rumor also appeared on Threads, where one user wrote, "I just can't with people! It's getting crazier by the second."
Some people seemed to interpret the claim as true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy.
In short, the story is fictional. It originated from a network of social media accounts called Bowlin Media that describes its content as satirical.
To determine the rumor's origin, we first used search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. If a major police operation really did bust a funeral home for operating as a "necrophilia brothel," journalists with reputable news media outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, and local publications would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such article. That was not the case.
The bio of Post Of The Day, the Facebook page mentioned above, says the account is part of Bowlin Media's network. That page first shared the rumor on Aug. 22, 2026 (archived). Another page in the network also posted the claim on that date.
The "About" section of Bowlin Media's various social media profiles on Facebook and Instagram, including Post Of The Day, reads, "Don't take what you find here seriously, unless you find something seriously funny and if that be the case, carry on."
To note its source, Post Of The Day's post includes a faint digital watermark on the lower left hand corner. It shows a "Care Bears"-inspired mascot that features on Bowlin Media's Bipolar Bear Facebook page. That watermark is visible in every post we reviewed.
The posts also include the name of a fake news source called "BIPO News," likely intended to be a reference to the Bipolar Bear Facebook page.
Further, the image circulating with the posts appeared to be generated using artificial intelligence software. Scanning the image on AI-detection platforms such as Hive Moderation and Pangram returned results suggesting it was fully AI-generated. It should be noted that such tools are not always reliable.
(Pangram)
We contacted the administrator of the Bowlin Media accounts for their response to the fact some people mistook the satirical story as real news. We will update this story if we receive a response.
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in early July 2026, we alerted readers to a fake story with comparable origins about New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani allegedly being asked not to come back to Katz's Deli, a well-known Jewish eatery, after he supposedly visited the restaurant with pro-Palestine activists.
Let us note here: Whether you agree with something being described as satire or parody is a matter of opinion. Snopes is in the business of facts. We label these rumors based on creators' description of them. Your call on whether you agree.