Heartbroken relatives were left horrified by a mix-up at the man’s funeral when his body could not be located, and his aunt described the moment she saw a stranger lying in the coffin.
A family has spoken of their anguish and horror after finding the body of a stranger inside their loved one’s coffin, with the shock causing a relative to suffer a heart attack.
Joey Espinosa’s relatives had all gathered at a funeral home for his service to say their final goodbye. But Espinosa’s aunt, Laura Levario, said she realized something was terribly wrong when she saw a casket she didn’t remember choosing.
Then, horrified, she realized that the person inside the coffin was not Joey. Laura told KSLA, “I realized the body was not my nephew’s and the casket we chose was not the same one.” [there]”.
She then shared that the shocking incident actually caused her husband to suffer a heart attack due to acute stress, and that he woke up three days later after being put on life support.
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Immediately afterwards, Laura said her family was taken to another room at the Forest Lawn Covina Hills Funeral Home in California, US, with another incorrect casket inside.
He claimed it took staff more than an hour to direct them to the correct room where they could finally begin grieving. “They didn’t know where my nephew’s body was,” Laura said, describing the ordeal as “the worst experience we’ve ever had.”
Forest Lawn called the error a “programming error” and offered the heartbroken family $200 (£150) as an apology, according to The Sun.
But that barely covered the funeral costs, which reached almost $20,000 (£15,000). The Espinosa family is now reportedly suing the California morgue for emotional distress and negligence.
Their attorney told CBS News: “Instead of mourning their loved one, they are looking for a body. When you spend that much money on a place like Forest Lawn, you would think they would do things right.”
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It comes after two sisters paying their final respects to their mother before her funeral were shocked to find a stranger dressed in her clothes lying in a coffin.
Initially, funeral home workers told the grieving couple that no mistake had been made, but staff entered the embalming room and found the body of their beloved mother Mary Archer.
Daughters Jennetta Archer and Jennifer Taylor said there was no resemblance between their mother and the woman in the casket.
A surprised Jennetta said: “There is no similarity between the people. Their size was so far apart; when the first person put the clothes on, he was swimming in them because he was so small compared to my mother.”
Only when it was discovered that her mother’s body was still in the embalming room did workers at Hunter’s Funeral Home in Ahoskie, North Carolina, admit there was a problem.
The embalmer said the home had attempted to contact the family to discuss the issue, but the sisters said they never received a call from the home.
Finally the bodies were changed and the service could continue as planned.
