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Delaware funeral home cremated wrong body, tried passing off another to family: lawsuit

Delaware Online | The News Journal

Xerxes Wilson, Delaware News Journal, Updated July 24, 2024

A Wilmington funeral home is accused in a lawsuit of accidentally cremating a person and presenting that person's family with the body of another man for burial.

Roland Johnson Sr. died in January at the age of 93. He was born in Wilmington where he built a three-decade career with the DuPont Co., rising from dishwasher to executive chef.

"He was a good dad. He was always there for me, whether it was financially or emotionally," said Darla Chase, his daughter.

Johnson fathered eight children. He was survived by 14 grandchildren and 52 great-grandchildren. As far as his final resting place, he wanted a traditional burial in a casket at Gracelawn Memorial Park cemetery atop the resting place of Mary Eleanor Johnson, his wife of more than 60 years.

Chase said her mother was friends with the family that runs Bell Funeral Home, which has done business in Wilmington since the 1930s. She had also conducted business at the funeral home with her father in the past, so when he died, that's where the family went.

They made her father's intentions clear: he wanted to be buried. They scheduled both a memorial service at a local church, as well as a repass for hundreds to pay their respects on Wilmington's Riverfront.

"When I gave them a check and told them what was expected, I’m thinking everything is fine," Chase said.

The day before the services, Chase went to the funeral home for what was described to her as the final inspection. She had changed her mind about the suit they had given the funeral home for her father to be buried in so she brought along a different one.

She arrived as other family members were already viewing the body.

"When I walked up closer, I said, 'wait a minute, that is not my dad," she said in an interview at her Wilmington home. "This is not the suit I gave them to put him in."

It is not uncommon for a person's body to change appearance somewhat during the embalming process. But the body in the casket clearly was not her father. She said the man in the casket was a bigger person than her father. His nose and hair were obviously different, she said.

However, employees of the funeral home were "adamant" that it was her father, she said.

She added that they tried to tell her the black suit on the man in front of her was actually the blue one she had previously delivered for her father to be buried in. She argued with them as other family members "ran out" upset.

"I’m standing there trying to defend: 'Where is my dad? You have to get my father up here. Present him to me. The funeral is tomorrow," she said.

She said the family was not immediately allowed to inspect the body for a tattoo of an eagle that was on her father's arm. And before they began arguing over the identity of the body, the funeral home had also told Chase it was too late to swap the suits on the body before the service the next day.

The family left the funeral home and turned to the internet.

How they discovered the man's true identity

It didn't take long for family members to find a picture of the man the funeral home had presented as Johnson. It was posted on the funeral home's website alongside his obituary. They said that man had died well before their father, was supposed to have been cremated and his family had already had a memorial service for him.

"It dawned on me: 'Oh gosh, they have already cremated my dad,'" Chase said.

But she held out hope that they had simply misplaced her father's body. The same day as the inspection, the family called the funeral home multiple times with new information, but couldn't get anyone on the line. Eventually, they showed up outside and were allowed to inspect the body again that night.

When it was revealed the man in the casket had no tattoo on his arm, the funeral home employees conceded they were wrong, said Liana Moreno, Johnson's granddaughter, who was there that night.

It is unclear whether the funeral home realized Johnson had been cremated before presenting the imposter body or whether it was a more innocent mix-up that became clear upon the family's insistence.

Some of Johnson's family members believe it was a "cover-up" and the lawsuit claims that the defendants "deliberately misled, plotted and concealed the wrongful cremation." Depositions and evidence discovery have not occurred this early in the lawsuit.

Moreno also noted that the funeral home appeared prepared to go through with the service and bury the imposter body as her grandfather.

"Over the top of my mother!" Chase interjected.

The funeral home's response to the lawsuit acknowledges Johnson was cremated, but denies any intentional coverup. An attorney who represents the funeral home declined to answer questions for the story citing the pending litigation.

"There are some issues in dispute, but we are sympathetic to the family’s position," wrote Nicholas Kondraschow, attorney for the funeral home.

A funeral home in flux?

The funeral home's internet listing shows it as "temporarily closed." An agenda for the state's licensing board that governs funeral services providers listed Bell Family Funeral Services on Tuesday's agenda for "review of application for funeral establishment." The attorney did not answer a question about the business's status.

On the eve of the services, the family had to cancel the memorial and the repass, in which they had paid more than $6,000 for food and space so more than 100 people could celebrate their father's life.

The funeral home eventually acknowledged that Johnson had been cremated, while also asking the family to sign a consent form after the fact, according to the lawsuit. With the help of an attorney, they eventually were able to retrieve Johnson's ashes. Then they had to figure out what to do with them.

"It was just a lot," Moreno said.

Eventually, he was laid to rest in a casket buried at the grave reserved for him and his late wife.

An urn containing his ashes and the blue suit Chase hoped he should be buried in were inside the casket. After some mourners had cleared out of the final service, they opened the casket at the cemetery and placed inside a crown that would have otherwise rested upon Johnson's head at his final memorial, Chase said.

"It was just so devastating and wild and crazy," Chase said of the journey to that point.

The lawsuit was filed earlier this year by Wilmington attorney Gary Nitsche on behalf of Johnson's estate and names as defendants Bell Funeral Home, an employee there, as well as Coleman's Funeral Service and Haven Memorial Park Cemetery and Crematory, two businesses alleged to have had a role in the cremation.

Chase said she understands that everyone eventually turns to dust, but the situation wasn't what her father wanted and took something from her family.

"I really wanted to see my dad, you know, at the funeral," Chase said. "I wanted to have a last viewing of my dad and I wasn’t able to do that. None of us was."

Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware funeral home wrongfully cremated man, then lied: lawsuit