A Washington State man was unpleasantly stunned final December when a funeral dwelling knowledgeable him that a stranger had been buried within the place of his father.
Jerald Weber filed a lawsuit towards Curnow Funeral House this week, alleging that the funeral dwelling inflicted emotional misery and violated shopper safety legal guidelines by burying a unique individual as a substitute of his father, 97-year-old World Battle II veteran William Weber, The Seattle Occasions reported.
The go well with states that funeral director Brian Curnow referred to as Weber on December 1 to inform him that an unnamed individual "was buried in his father's coffin, acquired army honors, and was carrying his father's uniform."
Prolonged relations, a few of whom had traveled from totally different states, had gathered three weeks earlier on November 12 to look at who they wrongly believed was William Weber be buried subsequent to his late spouse, Helen.
The funeral at Kent, Washington's Tahoma Nationwide Cemetery featured full army honors together with a gunfire salute and an American flag ceremoniously folded and draped on the casket.
"My household and I are devastated," Weber advised Seattle information station KIRO. "I'm simply wrought with simply anger, and simply unhappiness, and simply the negligence that went into this. It is simply unspeakable."
"I do not know who that individual is, who acquired army honors in my father's casket," he added. "My father's not buried with my mom at Tahoma Nationwide Cemetery. It is a stranger."
After Weber was knowledgeable of the error, preparations have been made to maneuver his father's physique to a unique funeral dwelling.
A catheter that Curnow Funeral House had promised to take away was allegedly nonetheless hooked up to William Weber's physique, as was the identical shirt and an grownup diaper that had been worn on the day of his loss of life, October 11.
The brand new funeral dwelling stated that the physique was too badly decomposed to establish and requested that pictures be despatched to substantiate Weber's identification as a substitute. A second funeral was held by the household in early January, nearly two months after the primary.
Christine Anthony of Washington State's Division of Licensing, which regulates the funeral business, advised KIRO that the funeral dwelling had not "self reported" the mix-up. An investigation has been launched by the company and the state Funeral and Cemetery Board.
Curnow Funeral House advised the information station that it was "working with the household and correct authorities, together with the Washington State Division of Licensing, relating to this matter."
Weber stated that he was shifting ahead with the lawsuit regardless of receiving a proper apology from the funeral dwelling, together with a refund for the primary funeral and reimbursement for the second.
Newsweek reached out to Curnow Funeral House for remark.
Though burial mix-ups aren't frequent occurrences, they've been reported nationally.
Throughout a Columbus, Ohio funeral final month, the household of Sonya White, who had just lately died unexpectedly on the age of 51, have been stunned to find a unique individual positioned contained in the coffin and dressed within the clothes of their cherished one.
Two sisters acquired an identical shock throughout what they thought was a viewing for his or her deceased mom Mary Archer at a North Carolina funeral dwelling final September. The sisters got here head to head with the stays of a unique one who bore "no similarity" to their mom however was carrying her clothes.
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