The statement from the funeral home’s lawyer said Perry was not involved with the body donation program.

“Perry Funeral Home received these remains from local hospitals who had indicated to Perry that the remains were ‘unclaimed’ by the parents,” it said. “In other words, the hospitals had informed Perry that the hospitals had reached out to the parents by certified mail and/or by phone, and the families did not respond. We do not believe that any of these remains involve families that paid Perry for funeral services.”

In a statement emailed on Friday, Wayne State University said it had become aware of the lawsuit only recently. “Without offering an opinion on the lawsuit itself, we believe the claim against the university is baseless and we will be moving soon to dismiss it,” it added.

A spokeswoman for the Detroit Medical Center, where Alayah was born, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday but told The Detroit News that it was against its policy to discuss pending litigation.

On Oct. 12, news broke that infants’ remains had been found hidden in the ceiling of another funeral home — the Cantrell Funeral Home, which had been shuttered in April. The news reached Alayah’s family, which encouraged Mr. Parks to share their concerns about Perry Funeral Home with the police, which he did.

In a news conference on Friday, Chief James Craig of the Detroit Police Department said the two funeral homes did not appear to be connected, and that officials may form a task force to investigate how human remains are stored and documented in the area. “This is larger than we might know,” he said.

Daniel W. Cieslak, another lawyer representing Alayah’s mother, said in an interview on Friday that based on documents he had seen while investigating this case, there could be hundreds of fetuses’ remains in the custody of Perry Funeral Home.