Time and time again, grieving pet owners around the Baltimore region would call Rodney Ward, looking for comfort and assistance cremating their beloved animals.

And time and time again, Ward would ingratiate himself with the grieving families and then quickly return with what he said were the remains, but were actually sand, debris or other construction material.

During an hour-plus of victim impact statements in court Tuesday, more than a dozen people spoke through tears recounting how they felt betrayed and taken advantage of during their grief.

Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge Keith R. Truffer handed down a sentence of 20 years and also ordered Ward to pay $12,510.25 in restitution to about 60 victims.

Nikki Pickens, who gave Ward her cat Norby to be cremated, said she often wonders where his body ended up.

“No amount of money can ever repair what has been done to these families,” Pickens said.

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Ward, 56, had run a fraudulent business called Loving Care Pet Cremations out of an address in Catonsville. He would tell bereft pet owners he would cremate their animals and return the cremains promptly.

Instead, many pet owners discovered they were given bags of other material. Some pet bodies were found along the side of the road; others were found decomposing in a hearse outside Ward’s house.

Ward, 56, pleaded guilty in February to multiple counts of theft and malicious destruction of property. He chose to remain silent in court.

He was charged, along with his wife, in August 2025. Yalanda McMullen Ward’s trial has been postponed until May, according to online court records.

The charges came after Baltimore County Police announced they were investigating multiple incidents in which the owners of deceased pets were notified that their pet’s bodies were found on the side of the road or in wooded areas — after they hired Ward to cremate them.

Since the charges were filed, at least 60 people have come forward as victims of Ward, saying they were given something other than the cremains of their beloved pets.

Adam Lippe, the prosecutor, said he believed there were many more victims who chose not to come forward.

A group of them became a tight-knit community, and have stayed in close contact to track the case, help find the missing remains of pets and push for more regulation of pet cremation businesses on the state level.

This story will be updated.