News

Court-ordered sale of Shepherd Memorial Park moving forward

By Amy McCraw, Published: August 7, 2025

The Superior Court judge overseeing the receivership of Shepherd Memorial Park this week directed Altmeyer Funeral Services to pay a percentage of the $340,000 it bid for the cemetery.

Once the West Virginia-based Dignity Funeral Services, Inc., which does business as Altmeyer Funeral Services, pays a deposit of five percent of the $340,000 the funeral business bid for the cemetery, it will likely begin a 10-day upset bid period required by law.
Judge Marvin Pope in his order filed on Thursday also barred Melody Shepherd, the widow of the late Hendersonville funeral director Tom Shepherd, from placing an upset bid, either directly or indirectly, for the cemetery.
In a hearing in July, Pope declared Jimmy Altmeyer, the owner of Altmeyer Funeral Services, the highest bidder for the cemetery and also directed him to pay the percentage of the money he bid for the cemetery.
But the judge’s order reflecting his comments in court was not filed until Thursday. Altmeyer said last week he believed the upset bid period could not begin until he paid the deposit, and he could not pay the deposit until the judge’s order was filed with the court.
An attempt to reach Altmeyer was unsuccessful on Thursday.
In the order filed Thursday, which reflected Pope’s decision in the July hearing to deny Shepherd’s motion to stay or pause the case, the judge directed that the auction of the cemetery be recorded with the court and that Altmeyer “shall immediately pay a deposit in the amount of five (05%) percent of the bid amount to the Commissioner to be held in trust.”
Pope’s order also bars Shepherd or a trust she tried to create from bidding during the upset bid period.
“In accordance with this Court's Order as to Bids Received entered on July 2, 2025, Melody Shepherd shall not be qualified, either directly or indirectly, to submit an upset bid and is prohibited from submitting an upset bid,” according to Pope’s order. “In accordance with the foregoing Findings of Fact, the purported trust submitted by Defendant shall not be qualified to submit an upset bid and is prohibited from submitting an upset bid.”
Court records show that Mark White, the auctioneer of the property, recorded its sale on Thursday.
Pope’s decision in July to name Altmeyer the highest bidder for Shepherd Memorial Park came after he rejected motions filed by both Shepherd and Altmeyer.
Calling it a “fiction,” Pope also rejected a trust Shepherd proposed that would have allowed her to bid on the cemetery by putting the property in the hands of the Community Foundation of Henderson County.
The motions and trust Pope considered in July were filed after a June 26 auction for the property where Altmeyer placed the only bid of $250,000.
Pope rejected Altmeyer’s bid that day after learning the offer did not come close to covering costs of more than $331,000 associated with operating the cemetery during the time it has been in receivership.
A court-ordered appraisal of the property put its value between $900,000 and $1.4 million.
After Altmeyer agreed to increase his offer to cover the cemetery’s operating costs, Shepherd through one of her attorneys said she would pay $340,000 and run the cemetery through a trust. Altmeyer then offered to pay $340,000 and questioned whether Shepherd could bid on the property.
An order Pope made last December had explicitly barred her from “directly or indirectly” placing a bid to purchase the property or “acquiring any interest in the cemetery.”
But during the June 26 hearing, the judge said Shepherd’s proposal to form a trust gave her the right to bid.
After rejecting the trust Shepherd proposed, Pope in the July hearing awarded the property to Altmeyer for the amount he bid in June.
An earlier attempt at auctioning the cemetery, in March, failed to produce any bidders.
In separate enforcement actions over the past five years, the North Carolina Board of Funeral service shut down the century old Thos. Shepherd & Son funeral home and the Cemetery Commission forced the cemetery into receivership after numerous complaints.
Altmeyer eventually bought Shepherd’s funeral home after it was put up for auction.
Pope on Dec. 23 ordered the public sale of Shepherd Memorial Park, the last remaining large asset of the family that transitioned to the funeral business in 1903 after first selling coffins at a furniture store.