Devastated family finds stranger in their mother's casket
A Chicago family is looking for answers after they held a funeral service for their mother only to find she had erroneously been buried by another family.
A Chicago family is looking for answers after they held a funeral service for their mother only to find she had erroneously been buried by another family.
Monique Williams says she and her brothers went to Leak and Sons Funeral Home to approve their mother Ella Mae Rutledge’s body for visitation before Saturday’s service. Yet the siblings were dismayed to find a complete stranger lying in their 74-year-old mother’s casket.
“Me and my brother say, ‘Dang! That don’t look nothing like Mom!'” her daughter told CBS Chicago.
Once the funeral home staff was alerted about the mixup, the family was shown the bodies of three other deceased women in the preparation room. Unfortunately, none of them was Mrs. Rutledge.
The family later learned that their mother had been laid to rest the day before by another family at Mount Hope Cemetery. Spencer Leak, the owner of the funeral home, conceded that an employee had accidentally mixed up the tags for Mrs Rutledge and the other woman.
“I can’t even grieve,” Williams said.
Over the weekend, more than 300 people came to pay their last respects, many traveling from out of state. However, because there was no body to bury at the funeral, Williams and her family were forced to hold a memorial service instead.
Ella Mae Rutledge has since been exhumed and returned to the funeral home for a proper burial, but her family doesn’t think they can endure another service.
“We’re not having another funeral or homecoming ceremony,” Williams confessed. “This was too much. My father is totally distraught. He and my mother bought a prepaid policy a long time ago, but after this, he told me, ‘No way in hell let my body go there when I die.'”
