A family is suing a San Diego cemetery for losing their father’s remains – which they only discovered when they buried their mother at the same site 20 years later.
Sidney Cooper was 71 when he died in 2001 and supposedly buried in the family plot at Greenwood Memorial Park and Mortuary in San Diego.
But two decades years later, when the family made arrangements to bury their mother Thelma, 92, who died in March 2023, next to their father, they were shocked to find out that his body and casket were not in the plot.
Cemetery staff, who alerted the family to the error, said they did not know the whereabouts of Cooper’s remains, their daughter, Lana Cooper-Jones, told the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, seeks to force the cemetery to find the patriarch’s remains and compensate the children for damages.
‘I was absolutely distraught,’ Cooper-Jones said Friday of the moment she learned her father’s body was missing. ‘It was like losing my father again, as well as my mom.’
Cooper-Jones said they had held a graveside service when her father died two decades ago, but they didn’t witness his casket being lowered into the ground.
Cemetery officials have said they might have an idea where his casket was buried, according to the family’s attorneys, Eric Dubin and Annee Della Donna.
An underground probe detected the presence of a casket in a different plot that’s supposed to be empty, the attorneys said.
The family has said that they want that body exhumed and the DNA tested.
‘My mother only chose to be buried because my father wanted to be buried — otherwise, she would have been cremated,’ Cooper-Jones said. ‘And now she’s buried there alone. It’s heartbreaking.’
The couple purchased their plot at Greenwood around 1992, about two blocks from the family’s Mountain View home, the family attorneys said.
Greenwood Cemetery said it is working to rectify the issue and said that its ownership and management had changed since the mistake happened.
‘While the placement of this family’s loved one occurred over 20 years ago under previous ownership and management, we recently discovered an issue with placement and are diligently working to confirm the placement of the loved one,’ the cemetery said in a statement.
‘Our hope is to reunite the loved ones as intended as soon as possible.’
Cooper-Jones said it’s a been difficult time for her and her siblings after the passing of their mother. And now, after losing their father, again.
‘We do this every year to honor our father,’ she said. ‘Now, we don’t even know where he is.’
‘For over 20 years the widow and family visited, prayed, cried, and honored their Dad at the 319 lot and headstone believing Defendant’s had buried him there,’ the lawsuit read. ‘Plaintiff’s had been praying to an empty lot for over 20 years.’
Source: dailymail.co.uk
