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Family To Sue Funeral Home After Being Given Wrong Ashes

POSTED: Thursday, July 13, 2006
UPDATED: 8:53 pm EDT July 13, 2006

The family who thought they cremated a loved one two years ago only to find out it was the wrong person said it plans to sue a Jacksonville funeral home.
Judy Perez
The family of Judy Perez is planning to sue the funeral home that mistakenly gave them the ashes of the wrong person.
VIDEO
Family Plans To Sue Funeral Home For Cremation Mistake

When Judy Perez died, her family held a memorial service for her at the beach.

"The sun broke out, and we had flowers, and we threw them in the water. Doug went out on a surfboard and emptied the ashes into the ocean. It was a good sendoff, you know," said family member Gina Farmer.

The dream sendoff ceremony later became a nightmare when the family learned the touching tribute was not for their loved one, but for someone else.

Perez's son Doug Farmer said he received a call from the medical examiner two months after the service.

"He asked what I did with the ashes. I told him the story. He said, 'Well, I am sorry to say it wasn't your mom,'" Doug Farmer said.

Farmer said he learned there were a series of mistakes that started at the medical examiner's office in Jacksonville, which admitted to releasing the wrong body. The mistakes continued with a funeral home in Yulee that, according to Farmer and his attorney, never bothered to see if they picked up the correct body.

"You pay the money, and you think everything is going to be done. It's the last thing you have to worry about. 'Do I have to check the ashes or check the body?'" Doug Farmer said.

The medical examiner's office said the technician involved in the incident has resigned.

Now, two years after the incident, Farmer is expected to sue the Greene Pine funeral home.

"If they only read the tag on the body bag, it did not have this lady's name on it. If they opened up the bag, they would have seen the body they have disposed of was not Mrs. Perez. It wasn't even a female," said Farmer's attorney, Jim Glober.

Perez's family members said now, when they think back on the service, all they can think of is the loving goodbye being for the wrong person.

"It's just the whole thing about it. ... It's like you were robbed of something -- the sprit of the whole thing," Gina Farmer said.

The family of the other body involved in the mix up is also expected to sue the funeral home and the medical examiner's office as well.

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