Nigel Hotham says his uncle Mark, 82, was the last of Robert Bush’s victims to be identified – finally confirmed by the serial number on his hearing aid
Mark Hotham’s body was found six months after his funeral supposedly took place
The family of the man whose body was the final one to be identified in Robert Bush’s warehouse say they will never forgive the rogue funeral director for treating their uncle “like a rotten piece of meat”. Nigel Hotham’s “beautiful, kind” uncle, Mark Hotham, was one of the bodies left at Legacy Independent Funeral Director’s warehouse for months.
Nigel says the “disgusting” conditions were “the worst place you could think of leaving someone”. Mark had to be identified by his hearing aid’s serial number as his body was so badly decomposed when it was found.
When the charges against Bush hit the headlines, Nigel’s sister had a feeling their uncle Mark was one of more than thirty bodies being hoarded in Bush’s funeral home. After months of testing Mark’s DNA and trying to identify him via his clothing, it was his hearing aid which finally confirmed the body in the morgue was Mark’s. He was the final body to be identified.
Nigel said: “When the police said ‘we think we’ve got your uncle Mark’, it was like I’d been hit by a train. My world collapsed, my mouth went dry. When they first came to see me, I asked to see some clothes my uncle was wearing. I said straight away that they were the type of clothes he would wear. My uncle Mark was the last man standing; he was the last to be identified.
“They obtained DNA from his half brother, but that wasn’t a suitable match. They tried to match the replacement hip they’d put into his body, but the coroner said that wasn’t enough. Our final option was they’d left him in his hearing aid and they matched the serial number to a database. This took two or three months. It wasn’t an easy, straight forward process trying to get him identified. Every avenue we went down was closed down. We were the last family to get our relative back. It’s been a rollercoaster.
“He did not deserve what happened to him – to be left the way he was left. Mark was in there for around six months. We viewed video the police had shown us. It was one of the most disgusting things I’ve ever seen in my life, and I’m not easily shocked.
“It was like the back of a supermarket where you would store chilled veg or salad. A very small place with shelves. They showed me where my uncle was laid and it was just the worst place you would think of leaving someone.
“There was no respect, it was as if he was off food. It was a horrible place and you wouldn’t expect a funeral director’s to be laid out like that. We weren’t allowed to view him and I wouldn’t have wanted to, he was too badly decomposed. So I never got chance to say goodbye to him.”
Nigel says the family was “very close to uncle Mark”, who was 82 when he passed away. Mark, who lived on Hessle Road, was a bachelor and a popular figure in the local community. Nigel said: “He lived around the corner from us as a family when we were kids. He had a little dog, kept to himself. The furthest he would go is the betting shop. He would stand and chat to people on the street. Most people loved standing and having a chat to him. He was a very, very kind person, and never had a bad word to say about people. Me and my sister were like his kids. He was very sweet, funny and easy going. He was deaf, so he would struggle to communicate sometimes, but he got on with a hearing aid. He was somebody you’d be proud to call your relative.”
Nigel says Bush will never be forgiven for his crimes. “He left a beautiful, kind man to decompose. He left a beautiful man to rot on the shelf. That man didn’t deserve to be treated like that. He deserved to be treated with dignity and he was just left. He was just left like a rotten piece of meat.
“I won’t forgive him, ever. I often give forgiveness in life but I will not forgive that man for what he did. I don’t understand why, I think he got greedy. He got out of his depth and didn’t know what to do and probably panicked. For me, why go on holiday knowing full well you’ve got bodies stacked up?
“I don’t know how anybody could go away and try to enjoy themselves when you’ve got all those bodies stacked up. I don’t know if he thought he’s invincible. Never will he be forgiven by my family for what he’s put us through. He’s continued on with his life enjoying his holidays, knowing full well that all these people are laying in the back of his funeral parlour.”
The family have now held a second funeral for Mark, supported by Hull City Council, and he has now been laid to rest properly.
Did you know you can make Hull Live a preferred source of Hull news in Google, which will mean you get more of our breaking news, exclusives, and must-read stories straight away? Here’s more information about what this means and how to do it – you can also do it straight away by clicking here .