COLUMBUS — Nearly 10 people testified Thursday about problems they experienced with McLin Funeral Home Inc. and its owner Scherrie McLin, who could lose her license to be a funeral home director in Ohio.

The Ohio Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors scheduled Thursday’s hearing after it suspended McLin’s license and ordered the funeral home to cease operations in March for allegedly violating nine state laws and administrative codes.

McLin did not appear at the hearing or send a representative.

Theresa Clemons, who hired McLin Funeral Home, 2801 N. Gettysburg Ave., to conduct her mother’s funeral, testified she had to go forward with the service without her mother’s body because the funeral home failed to pick it up from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office.

Clemons testified she was repeatedly told by funeral home employees that her mother’s body was not ready to be picked up from the coroner’s office.

She later discovered her mother’s body was ready to be delivered to the funeral home well before the funeral.

“I just can’t imagine that someone who is supposed to be helping at a time of need has made it so hard for people,” Clemons said. “At their most vulnerable times, they have done things like that and there is nothing you can do at that time.”

Roland Miller Sr., a former funeral director for McLin Funeral Home, said he quit working there in 2009 after the funeral home purposely delayed returning a body to the person’s relatives.

Assistant Ohio Attorney General Cheryl Hawkinson said the funeral home held the body for ransom so it would get paid for funeral services.

Lisa Bruns, funeral facility inspector and investigator with the state board, testified that McLin and her funeral home staffs did not cooperate with state investigators.

The testimonies of Miller and Bruns also revealed that McLin’s son, Mark Donelson, has stated on social networking sites that he is a funeral director and embalmer, a claim Bruns said is not true.

Columbus attorney Marc Myers was the hearing officer and will make a recommendation to the state board within 45 days on whether McLin’s suspension should continue, stop or her director’s license be revoked.