The Village of Groveport, Ohio ran into a disconcerting issue recently. When cemetery staff opened what was supposed to be a new grave, they found a century-old unrecorded burial.

Village history mentions surreptitious burials in connection with an 1830s cholera epidemic; legend says that families would not mention the death, then bury their loved one at night, without benefit of a marked, recorded plot. Carla Cramer of the Groveport Heritage Society says the village knows basically where the “cholera section” is though.

There are plans to map the cemetery using ground-penetrating radar, but those ahve been put on hold for at least a year due to current economic conditions.

The Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s office made another body error recently.

In 2004, they released the clothing for a homicide victim, but kept Chad Mulvin’s body. The victim’s mother had her son cremated, but didn’t find out for over nine months that she had only his clothing. At some point, when someone wanted to see the victim’s clothing, ME staff members realized their error, and turned over his remains. The county settled a lawsuit for $15,000 over that situation.

Now we hear that the ME office released the wrong body, and shipped it to Jamaica. Kemoy Crawford died in March of 2008, and was supposed to be sent home. This time, the funeral director in Jamaica discovered the error. It cost Allegheny County $9,000 to make it right. Dr. Karl Williams says three employees have been disciplined, and one was fired, and that his office has implemented safeguards to prevent this situation from occurring again.

Shrader Funeral Home, in Ballwin, Missouri recently faced every funeral director’s nightmare: they mixed up two bodies. Kim Bell of the St Louis Post-Dispatch reports that when the family of 80-year-old Fritz Schnabel arrived for his wake in late September, his widow took one look at the body in the casket and announced firmly, “That’s not my Fritz.” The funeral home staff at first suggested that the make-up be touched up, but when Schnabel’s family persisted, they checked for a chest scar from Schnabel’s open-heart-surgery. It wasn’t there.

The funeral home had no immediate solution, but suggested the family go ahead with the service, using an empty casket. That worked until some out-of-town family members arrived and wanted to see Fritz. Ultimately, there was a procession and burial ceremony, along with military honors, at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery.

So who was the man in Fritz’s casket? Robert J. Leonard, who had died the same day as Fritz Schnabel, at a different funeral home. Leonard’s family was also served by Shrader.

How did it happen? Bob Leonard survived his wife and sister; his funeral was attended primarily by nieces and nephews, most who hadn’t seen him in over a year. One niece attributed any doubts in her mind to his recent health issues, and having lost a lot of weight.

In the end, Shrader refunded both burials, and paid to have both bodies exhumed and re-buried, with services, processions, escorts and flowers. They’ve also required all bodies coming in to have ID tags.

In a continuing story from Columbia, Missouri, Warren Funeral Chapel and its owners Harold Warren Sr. and Harold Warren Jr. are facing a possible class-action lawsuit. Plaintiff Kathy Johnson has alleged that Warren FC lost her mother’s remains, and is seeking an exhumation order to determine if her mother is buried in the correct plot at Rock Bridge Cemetery.

In July 2008, State Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors investigators reported they found bags of organs from multiple bodies in one casket, as well as one body stored in an electrical room more than ten months after death. Investigators also found three other bodies not properly stored or handled.
The State Attorney General has also filed a lawsuit against the Warrens. Here’s more coverage from the Columbia Missourian

In September, 2007, Jeff Palmore, owner of Bell Funeral Home in St Louis, arranged a burial at Pacific City Cemetery. To save the family the $525 fee the cemetery sexton was charging, he offered to dig the grave himself. Sexton Alan Bruns refused, saying there was a city ordinance that only allowed sextons to dig graves. Palmore researched it, and found there indeed was such an ordinance, but noted it also set the fee at $360, not $525.

Palmore has filed suit against Bruns and the city of Pacific for the overcharge in small claims court. The judge there ruled the city had sovereign immunity; Palmore appealed that decision, and added a claim for punitive damages, alleging overcharging for burials, selling people grave spaces they already own and digging up and disposing of dead bodies, all with the tacit approval of the city.

It’s been a contentious time since then, with an argument during a funeral where the police were called. The city administrator is siding with Bruns, a fourth-generation sexton. No court date has been set for the new case.