Funeral home sued after giving family the wrong corpse

KCAL, KCBS, AMENTHA HUNT, CNN

By Lauren Pozen

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    COMPTON, California (KCAL) — A Compton family is suing a funeral home after workers misplaced their loved one’s body and dressed another corpse in his clothing.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” niece Amentha Hunt said. “It didn’t make arrangements there to see the wrong body.”

Hunt chose Harrison-Ross Mortuary to prepare her 80-year-old uncle for burial after he died. However, when she came back to view his body she said it wasn’t him.

“It was a guy laying there in my uncle’s suit, but it wasn’t my uncle,” Hunt said. “I just kept looking at him. I am like ‘He couldn’t have gotten that dark.'”

Hunt said she tried to asked a mortuary worker for help when she knew something was wrong. The worker dismissed her concerns and said that the corpse was her uncle’s body.

“That’s not my uncle,” Hunt said. “My uncle wouldn’t have gotten that dark … I showed a picture and she said ‘Yeah, you’re right, give us one minute.'”

Hunt said she and her family waited three hours while the mortuary fixed the mixup before they could finally bury her uncle. She still doesn’t know whose body was dressed in his suit. She filed a lawsuit against the mortuary over the ordeal.

“For them to come in and see the wrong corpse, and for the mortuary to deny it’s the wrong corpse, we think it’s really just a basic standard of care that they messed up on,” attorney Elvis Tran said. “They really need to improve their ways so they don’t do this to another family.”

Harrison-Ross Mortuary denied the claims. The funeral home said it is preparing to file a cease-and-desist letter against Hunt.

Hunt said she’s still haunted by the ordeal of seeing someone else in the suit she picked out for her uncle.

“It’s hurting,” she said. “To view the wrong corpse, I still can see that guy.”

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