They really can. And you should know your rights. The death industry is slimy AF, about on par with timeshares. My late mother-in-law was Lisa Carlson, a pioneer of funeral rights and ethics. If you are going to be dealing with someone's death or planning to die (and you should be prepared), it's important stuff. You don't want to get suckered when you are so emotionally vulnerable, on which the death industry preys. There are a lot of options which the death industry tries very hard to keep hidden from you and lobbies to remove.

https://books.google.com/books/about/Final_Rights.html?id=-qxJEAAAQBAJ

Also: this is the offshoot of Carlson's funeral ethics organization https://funerals.org/

It was something like $9k to have my grandfather cremated and a small service for him. The funeral industry is even worse than the wedding industry at taking advantage of your time of emotional turmoil, and because even legally you're kinda limited at what you can do with the body and you're on a time crunch, shopping around isn't exactly easy.

Given that servicemember funerals can be quite elaborate, and I'm sure that number also likely includes a number of other things like death benefits paid to the families, I can totally believe that cost.

The murder made national headlines and there was a public memorial service. Most of us don’t have either of those