A funeral home operating in Vicksburg for nearly 20 years apparently has unexpectedly closed its doors, and a public hearing about the business has been scheduled in two weeks at the Secretary of State’s Office in Jackson.

Telephones are disconnected and doors are locked at Williams Funeral Service offices at 3400 Washington St., which appeared deserted Thursday.

Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann’s communications director, Pamela Weaver, confirmed a hearing is set for Oct. 13, but declined to discuss details.

By law, the office’s Regulation and Enforcement Division regulates the pre-need funeral industry and perpetual care cemeteries.

The funeral home also has operated an office in Port Gibson, and the phone number there also had been disconnected.

A residential address in Brandon for CEO Matthew Williams Jr., 53, has an unlisted phone number.

Funeral homes in Mississippi are licensed by the Mississippi State Board of Funeral Service, and executive director Delores Kenney said Thursday no plans have been made to discuss Williams Funeral Home when the board next meets, on Oct. 20.

Kenney said, however, calls to her office about the business from its clients have increased.

“We have had calls from people not being able to get them on the phone,” Kenney said.

Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said he has received no family requests for bodies to be delivered to the funeral service since August. He suggested that customers who can’t reach Williams should seek alternative plans for funeral services.

The business has operated at the Washington Street location since 1992 and is listed in good standing with the Secretary of State’s Business Services Division, according to state records. No report has been filed since a creation filing in 2008. Warren County land records show the building has gone to tax sale each of the past three years, with taxes for 2009 and 2010 unredeemed.

The business is licensed through June 2012, according to the Mississippi State Board of Funeral Service.

James Jefferson Jr., whose family operates the oldest funeral home in Vicksburg, W.H. Jefferson Funeral Home, said Thursday that word has been “getting out” on a possible business interruption at Williams.

“Most have come in and questioned about other services if they couldn’t reach him,” he said.

The Regulation and Enforcement Division is responsible for implementing the Pre-Need and Funeral Registration Act. Funeral homes and cemeteries that sell funeral or cemetery merchandise or services before a death must register with the division, which may issue fines and suspensions for violations of the law.

In 2010, the former Green Acres Cemetery was purchased from the state in a public sale following a 19-month inquiry into its handling of pre-need cemetery merchandise. The cemetery’s trust account for holding pre-need merchandise was found to be missing about $375,000, forcing people to pay for items such as markers and vaults a second time even if amounts had been paid.

The civil inquiry involved the Attorney General’s Civil Litigation Division, but no money was recovered and no charges were filed against the former owners. The facility has been renamed Greenlawn Gardens Cemetery among other aesthetic and physical upgrades.

In 2009, the Pre-Need Loss Recovery Fund mandated $10 must be added to each trust-funded contract for funeral and cemetery services to build up a separate pool of money to cover any future pre-need contracts deemed worthless by the state. A five-member board to manage the fund includes local businessman Harry Sharp, who purchased Green Acres after acting as state-appointed receiver.

Seven other cemeteries in Mississippi were the subject of separate civil actions filed in 2009 by the Secretary of State’s Office, with Green Acres the most serious in terms of the total of missing money.

In August, Hosemann ordered Forrest Memorial Park in Corinth and Oaklawn Memorial Park in Booneville to stop selling pre-need goods and services after more than $100,000 was determined missing from perpetual care trust accounts.