The Mortician has just delivered one of the year’s most chilling true crime finales, complete with a last-minute twist that’s already drawing comparisons to the jaw-dropping “killed them all” confession of Robert Durst in The Jinx.
The new documentary series charts the rise and fall of David Sconce, heir to the Lamb Funeral Home empire, where cremations were turned into an industrial operation. Through interviews and archival footage, the HBO docu-series pieces together a disturbing legacy of greed, deception, and death.
As families began asking questions and the authorities caught on, Sconce’s story unraveled in ways nobody could have predicted. The docu-series doesn’t just revisit his crimes – it examines how the case shocked lawmakers into action, leading to new regulations around funeral home practices in California.
But it’s the finale that’s sparking the biggest reaction, as viewers are left asking the same question: did Sconce just admit to murder on camera? The Mortician creator has weighed in.
Did David Sconce admit to murder?
Although the former funeral director doesn’t outright confess on camera, he heavily implies that he murdered three people. The Mortician director, Joshua Rofé, confirmed this implication, saying that if a prosecutor believes there’s a case, they should go for it.
Rofé told The Guardian that Sconce is “clearly implying some very serious crimes have been committed” in his finale confession. “If there is a [prosecutor] out there who deems it fit, who thinks there is enough to even go by, then great,” he added. “They should do it.”
At the end of Episode 2, a former acquaintance – who chooses to remain anonymous in the HBO docu-series – is asked how many murders he believes Sconce is involved in. “I figure about three,” he replies.
Despite not knowing about this comment at the time of his interview, Sconce also references “three of them altogether” when alluding to his alleged crimes. The moment is played at the end of The Mortician Episode 3, when Rofé asks Sconce if he has anything else to add.
“Alright, so there was one night I had to go to the cemetery with Barbara. I get out and I go to unlock the gate. Some kid jumps out of the weeds and he’s got a nickel-plated [gun] right at my head,” Sconce replies.
“And he says, ‘Gimme your wallet, gimme your watch.’ And Barbara’s in the passenger seat watching this. And so I said, ‘Look man, I only got like 60 bucks.’ And I gave him my cheesy Casio watch.
“Barbara, God bless her, she’s reaching over to my door because I always kept my nine millimeter in there. Because she’s gonna come out and cap this guy. But the gun wasn’t there because I had problems at the range with the Luger shells, the casings, because they’re too big.
“So it was out getting a ramp and throat done on it. I learned all of this when I went through the stupid sheriffs.” Their conversation is cut off at this point, as the cameras need to be reloaded.
Rofé tells him to hold tight as it’s a “great story,” to which Sconce says, “A true story. I thought I was gonna die. I really did. I can tell you more of this, but I can’t tell you on camera. I can’t tell you…
“All I can say is, ‘You think I found that guy?’ It’s one of the things I can’t talk about [on camera]. The other thing I’ll tell you about too, but can’t talk about that either. Really, there’s three of them altogether.”
“Gotta promise not to tell on me,” he adds with an eerie smile, with Rofé saying, “I don’t want to know then.”
If it is a confession, Sconce seems confident he won’t face consequences. “It’s never gonna come back. Never gonna come back. Can’t come back,” he says before laughing.
The death of Tim Waters
Prior to this, the true crime docu-series examines suspicions surrounding Sconce and his involvement in the murder of Tim Waters, a rival cremation provider who spoke out about the Lamb Funeral Home’s unusually low prices.
In April 1985, Waters died at age 24 of what an autopsy ruled a heart attack. However, a toxicology test was later performed, discovering his system contained traces of oleander, a poisonous plant that could be found in Pasadena yards.
Although Sconce was tried over the murder in 1990, the charges were dropped the following year due to insufficient evidence and doubts about the accuracy of the oleander poisoning results.
Instead, Sconce was sentenced in 1989 to five years behind bars for mutilating corpses, including mining teeth for gold fillings, conducting mass cremations, and hiring strongmen to assault three rival morticians. Sconce was released in 1991 after serving two and a half years, but was sentenced to 25 years to life in 2013.
The latter prison term was a result of him violating his lifetime probation, which was imposed in exchange for pleading guilty to hiring a hitman to murder a potential buyer of a rival crematory. In 2023, Sconce was released from prison, allowing him to participate in The Mortician.
The Mortician director opens up about “chilling” ending
HBOIn an interview coinciding with the release of The Mortician finale, Rofé described how “chilling” it was experiencing Sconce’s parting words, which at the very least allude to the murders.
“I could not have imagined that a moment like that would occur,” the filmmaker told The Hollywood Reporter. “In the moment as it’s occurring, I’m not even thinking about anything other than, ‘Oh, wow. This guy really wants to get me alone, away from the cameras, and he wants to tell me something that is clearly extremely nefarious.’”
Rofé continued, “I feel like I don’t want to comment on the allegation of what it seems he’s implying. That’s clear – that’s very clear to the audience, right? I just like, ‘Holy f**k, this guy really thinks that I’m then gonna just walk with this secret alongside him.’ It was so chilling…
“Maybe this will be helpful to you. When I first told the execs at HBO what happened, the way I categorized it was, and I think this is really accurate: ‘With a wink and a nod, he’s making these admissions.’”
The Mortician is streaming on HBO Max now. For more documentary news, read about why Travis Scott is facing backlash, where OceanGate’s Wendy Weil Rush is now, and how The Jinx Season 2 proved true crime fans wrong.
