Advertisement

Mortuary buries wrong body

INGLEWOOD, Calif., March 13 (UPI) -- A California man said a mortuary mixed up his wife's body with another and his family ended up burying the wrong person.

Evan Davidson, 73, told KABC-TV, Los Angeles, he knew something was strange when he saw his wife's body March 1 at Simpson Family Mortuary in Inglewood.

Advertisement

"I looked at her and said, 'Well this don't look like my wife at all,'" Davidson said. "They kept telling me it was, but it's just because she had been embalmed and she was sick."

Darlene Davidson, his wife of 51 years, had died of heart failure, KABC reported Monday.

The family proceeded with the funeral, though three days later Davidson received a call from the mortuary asking him to identify another body.

"He had a lady over there jumping up and down, saying the lady that she came to visit was not her mother," Davidson said. "I saw my wife, and the shock just knocked me down."

A spokesman for the mortuary admitted the mistake in a statement.

"Our main concern is for these people to receive the dignity and respect they deserve, and put the individual to rest. We are not sweeping it under the rug. We made an error and we want to rectify our error and do whatever we can do to make them feel better," he said.

Advertisement

Davidson said the family plans to hold a second funeral for his wife Wednesday.

Latest Headlines