Scores of area pet owners were shocked and angered this week when authorities charged a Pittsburgh and Harrison funeral director with improperly disposing of thousands of dogs and cats after owners paid for pet burials or cremations.
Patrick Vereb, 70, of Pittsburgh’s Hazelwood neighborhood, owns and operates funeral homes in Hazelwood and Harrison, as well as Eternity Pet Memorial, which provides funerals, burials and cremations for pets.
State Attorney General Dave Sunday said Vereb stole almost $660,000 from customers who paid for pet cremations, burials, returns of ashes and other services between 2021 and 2024.
Some 6,500 victims have been identified thus far.
Vereb is accused of taking money for cremations, but instead disposing of the remains in landfills and giving customers ashes that weren’t from their pets, according to authorities.
TribLive reached out to pet owners likely caught up in the scandal. These are some of their stories.
‘Little Mogwai’
When Ashley Sopata’s mother died in 2018, her dog, a Chow Chow mix with bushy brown ears she named Sadie Mae, helped the Pittsburgh native process her grief.
Sadie Mae was there, again, as Sopata cared for a father while he battled Parkinson’s disease and, yet again, when Sopata was dealing with her father’s funeral arrangements.
In 2022, old age hit Sadie Mae hard. Her legs weakened. The 15-year-old dog’s breathing grew shallow as her lungs filled with fluid. Sopata had to euthanize her in late February that year.
Sopata said she tried to honor her “little Mogwai’s” special role in her life when she turned to funeral director Patrick Vereb to handle Sadie Mae’s cremation.
On Monday, after seeing headlines about Vereb scrawled on Facebook during a work break, she opened the black, photo-lined shadow box Vereb had given her years earlier to store Sadie Mae’s remains.
Inside, she found a simple plastic bag.
There was no cremation tag — and no other identification.
She, like Vereb’s other alleged victims, doesn’t know what animal’s cremated remains she’s been displaying in her Mt. Washington dining room for the past three years.
“I just wanted to do what was right by my dog — that’s not what I wanted for my dog and certainly not what I paid for,” said Sopata, now 33. “And now I have someone else’s fur baby. I don’t even know what to do. But Sadie Mae deserved better than a landfill.”
‘Taste testers’
Laura Guskiewicz has owned beagles for about 20 years now.
When her 10-year-0ld Willow died in 2021 and Lyddie, 14, died in 2024, Guskiewicz received the ashes of what she thought were her two beloved dogs from her veterinarian, which partnered with Eternity Pet Memorial for cremations.
On Monday, she learned the ashes she has displayed in her bedroom with photos of the dogs did not actually come from her beagles.
“It was shocking. I went home from work, and I had a good cry,” said Guskiewicz, 54, of Unity. “It was just horrifying.”
Willow and Lyddie, she said, served as “taste testers” for her treat business “Lucky Dog Biscuit Company.” She described beagles as “kind, gentle little dogs.”
Between the two, Guskiewicz spent 12 years with the rescued beagles.
“You entrust their care to these people to treat them with dignity and respect when they die, and it just didn’t happen,” she said.
Despite the unknown origins of the ashes, Guskiewicz said she plans to keep the ashes and photos on display.
‘Brothers’
Melissa Wisbar, 36, of Jeannette lived with her cat, George, for nearly half her life.
A brown tabby, George was happy to cuddle during downtime or keep her company while she worked from home, Wisbar said.
But she, too, learned Monday that the ashes of her cat, who died at 17 about a year ago, are likely not his.
“It’s really just like opening up another wound from losing the pet to begin with to ultimately not having his true ashes,” Wisbar said.
Wisbar received then 2-year-old George from her cousin before she departed for an Air Force deployment more than a decade ago. George lived much of his life with another cat, who died in 2019, and the ashes of the two “brothers” are displayed together with photos in Wisbar’s basement, she said.
Though the news of the ashes has been “devastating,” Wisbar said she plans to maintain the shadowbox they reside in since it still provides her memories and serves as a memorial to George.
‘Nothing can fix this’
Tina Moore chose cremation for her cats — Pickle, La La and Daisy — when each became seriously ill because she never wanted to leave them behind.
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“If I had to move from a home, I would not want to leave behind my pet (with a burial). I always told them I would never let anything bad happen to them.”
All of her cats lived full lives, but succumbed to old age, kidney failure or other end-of-life complications. Euthanasia, with the promise of dignified after-life care and a future of being with her, seemed appropriate for the companions that gave Moore so much joy.
A letter from the state Attorney General’s office crushed all of that for Moore. Now, in addition to reliving the grief of loosing her pets, she’s left with lingering guilt that, despite her best efforts, she didn’t do right by them.
“I struggle through my day as I relive all three deaths. I am begging my pets for their forgiveness. I am having nightmares. Nothing will fix this.”
Moore also feels for her veterinarian’s office, which trusted Vereb’s services to provide cremations for its clients’ pets.
The one solace, Moore said, is knowing she is not alone in her nightmare, that others are going through the same thing. Spreading the word that others are going through this, she hopes, will help pet owners cope with the renewed grief and anger the situation brings.
And, while she knows it will do little to dull the pain, Moore, like other pet owners who spoke to TribLive, wants to see more than just fraud charges against Vereb.
“There needs to be animal abuse charges added to this case.”
‘My stomach just dropped’
Angela Smith had mourned family members’ deaths. But nothing prepared her for losing Mister — a 15-pound Shih Tzu and her bright-eyed companion — last year.
“I’m not going to lie to you — the day my dog died, I’ve never grieved like that before,” said Smith, 43, of North Versailles.
Mister spent the last of his 14 years on daily medication — the result of a collapsed trachea that gnarled his bark, Smith said. The same day Mister died at home on May 19, 2024, Smith was researching cremation options. She saw rave reviews online for Vereb.
The two spoke by phone hours later.
“My pet was more than just an animal to me. He was like a son,” said Smith, who works in a group home for people with disabilities. “I couldn’t just bury him in the backyard. He deserved a service.”
On Monday, Smith was shopping in WalMart when her husband rang her cell phone. He sounded panicked.
He had read on Facebook about Vereb and wanted to confirm it was the same man who helped them with Mister.
“At that point, my stomach just dropped,” she said. “I still can’t make sense of it.”
Smith hasn’t spoken with others who entrusted their pet’s cremation to Vereb. She said she wants justice — but doesn’t know what form it even could take.
“Honestly, there’s nothing they can do to make this right,” Smith told TribLive. “There’s no going to the landfill, getting these animals back or giving them a proper cremation.”
“And we sat there,” she added, “crying in front of this man.”
‘He puts on good front’
Ashley Hamrock and her mother were having a spaghetti dinner at Parkwood Inn Restaurant in Greensburg when they heard the news on television.
“We could not finish our dinner,” said Hamrock, 37, of Boston, who is from Harrison City and was visiting her mother. “We took our food to go.”
When Hamrock saw Vereb’s face on the screen it took her back five years when he was in her living room promising to take care of Lucy, her Cairn Terrier — like the dog Toto in the “Wizard of Oz” — who had been her companion since 2008.
“I have no idea what happened to my dog,” she said. “This has been on my mind since last night. I feel like myself and others like me who lost pets before those dates should also be recognized as victims.”
Hamrock said she is not sure what to do with the ashes that are encased in a frame with a photo of Lucy because if they belong to another pet she wants to respect that for the pet owner who loved the animal. In Lucy’s final months, Hamrock often carried her up and down steps because the animal had a heart tumor and Hamrock didn’t want to put any additional stress on her beloved pet.
When Vereb came to pick up Lucy, Hamrock had her wrapped in towels in a box.
“He puts on good front,” Hamrock said. “I even paid extra for him to return the ashes to my home but like everyone else, he took advantage of me.”
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She said the ashes came back with no cremation tag or identification number. They were in a plastic bag. Vereb told Hamrock he loves animals and that if he goes to a house where he suspects animal abuse he refuses to leave until they write him an additional check for $500 for a donation to the humane society.
“My dog was not just a pet,” Hamrock said. “She was a deeply loved part of my family. She was with me through some of the most formative and challenging times of my life. She provided me with unwavering comfort, companionship and emotional support.
Lucy stood by Hamrock through some of the most formative and challenging periods of her life, she said.
Lucy was full of energy, fiercely loyal, and always on the move. She loved chasing anything that moved, but nothing brought her more joy than a ball, Hamrock said.
“She would gently push it toward anyone who sat near her, inviting them to play, and she spent hours perched by the window of my apartment, and she traveled with me everywhere — by plane, train, even boat/ferry,” Hamrock said. “Friends often joked she probably had more frequent flyer miles than most people. She deserved dignity, both in life and in passing.”
‘Like children’
Lisa Terwilliger, 54, of Apollo said her two chihuahuas were like her children.
Organized through her veterinarian, Eternity Pet Memorial first cremated 13-year-old Belles in 2021. But when it came time to cremate 17-year-old Riley in 2024, Terwilliger said she and her husband brought his remains directly to Vereb, who seemed “welcoming and sympathetic.”
But when she learned of the accusations against the director, she said she felt “immense anger and disbelief.”
“They were our family. They were our family, and they deserved to be treated better,” Terwilliger said.
In her home, Terwilliger and her husband built a memorial to each dog, which include statues, collars, photos and shadow boxes with what they thought were each dog’s last remains.
Now, she said, she is uncertain whether she will keep the ashes among the larger shrine.
“I don’t know if I can (keep the shadow boxes up). It’s not them. It just isn’t them. It’s just all a farce,” she said.
‘She picked us. We didn’t pick her’
George Karnos, 61, of Bethel Park, recalled when he and his wife Tracy and their daughters Lexie and Amy first met Ruby, a Yorkiepoo.
“All the puppies came out into the little caged area,” he said. “They were all running around and not paying attention, except one. She ran straight over to us and put her front paws on the fence. She picked us. We didn’t pick her.”
Having to go through the process of losing Ruby was one of the hardest decisions and traumatized the whole family, he said of when Ruby passed on June 1, 2022. Ruby was family. He recalled working from home and having lunch. Ruby would be under the table and look up at him in case he dropped a piece of food.
“Ruby calmed me,” he said. “We talk to her framed ashes. But now it is totally different since we were told about the story. I feel like I let Ruby down. I was supposed to protect her.”
Their hearts are broken as much as the day they lost sweet Ruby, Tracy Karnos said in a statement.
“We stayed in the (veterinarian’s) office probably longer than they allowed but we could just not leave our girl after she had passed away,” Tracy Karnos said.”We trusted that she was in good hands and her ashes would be returned to us as we agreed and paid for. How could someone do this?”
Lexi Karnos said Vereb took away every peace of mind from her and her family of knowing that their beloved Ruby was brought back to us safe and sound after she had passed.
“I am utterly shattered and filled with unbelievable love and grief fueled rage knowing a person could hide behind disgusting lies all for the sake of money,” Lexie said. “The amount of trauma you have caused is insurmountable.”
To throw the bodies of beloved animals in a landfill as if their lives didn’t even matter is absolutely abhorrent and disrespectful, Amy said in a statement. Vereb took advantage of countless vulnerable families and absolutely desecrated the bodies of their beloved furry family members.
Lexie said the pain in her heart of losing Ruby three years ago was sliced open Monday and it is like losing her dog a second time. Ruby had her spot by the front door where she had a bed and would hide behind the curtains.
“It is traumatizing to lose a pet,” Lexie said. “She meant nothing to him. She meant the world to us. Hold your pets tight because you never know.”
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Ruby grew up with Lexie and Amy.
“He just saw them as bodies,” Amy said. “But he didn’t see the millions upon millions of kisses all over their faces and heads or her tiny little tail trying its best to wag when she saw us walking in the door or her paws that she walked on when she chose us as her family.”