The Fenders were indicted following an investigation by the West Virginia attorney general's office and the West Virginia State Police, Games-Neely said.
The embezzlement arose from "pre-need" funeral contracts that customers signed, Games-Neely said. Through the contracts, customers could purchase burial lots or other funeral services for loved ones in advance so they would not have to worry about the arrangements when people died, she said.
Rosedale operates a funeral home and cemetery off W.Va. 45 east of Martinsburg.
The money was embezzled from 42 families or individuals who had made arrangements for people to be buried in Rosedale cemetery or to have funerals for them there, Games-Neely said. In some of the cases, families had to go to other funeral homes after being told their contracts at Rosedale did not exist, Games-Neely said.
Sometimes people went to the cemetery to make arrangements for burial of loved ones only to find out that someone else had already been buried in the plot they bought, she said.
"They (had) all kinds of weird problems out there," Games-Neely said.
The price of the pre-need contracts ranged from $465 to $13,820, according to the indictment.
The earliest contract investigators found dated back to 1950. Most were made in the late 1980s, Games-Neely said.
Fender worked there more than 20 years, and his wife served as vice president part of that time, Games-Neely said.
A woman who answered the phone at the funeral home Tuesday night said Fender no longer worked there.
The couple lives in Martinsburg, but they could not be reached by telephone for comment Tuesday night.
The woman at Rosedale referred further questions to Service Corp. International.
Service Corp. spokesman Bill Barrett said the company took over Rosedale in October 1988 after problems arose at the funeral home.
Barrett said he did not know about the embezzlement case, but he said the firm would normally be aware of such an investigation.
Service Corp., based in Houston, Texas, is the world's largest funeral home and cemetery company with 4,000 funeral homes and 500 cemeteries in 20 countries, he said.
