Man sues after he discovers wife's coffin washed away because of flooding
theGRIO REPORT - Richard Lee got a surprising phone call this week. A deacon at his church was calling to let him know that his wife's coffin was floating about 100 yards away...
Richard Lee got a surprising phone call this week.
A deacon at his church was calling to let him know that his wife’s coffin was floating about 100 yards away.
Lee said he didn’t believe the call at first because he had paid for his wife to be buried in a concrete vault. But he went to investigate and arrived at Mt. Olive Baptist Church, he recognized his wife Carolyn’s casket.
His wife died in 2007 of a lung disease.
“I didn’t want to look inside because I’d never get that out of my mind,” he told the Houston Chronicle.
Now, Lee is suing the Robinson Funeral Home in Silsbee, Texas, for negligence. The funeral home declined comment to the Chronicle. The area
“Clearly something went wrong here,” said Annie McAdams, attorney for Lee. “Bodies are not supposed to come up.”
Lee has also taken out a restraining order against the church personnel to make sure that the concrete vault is not tampered with. He already believes church personnel went afterward and closed the vault, because the casket could only have left through an open door, and the vault was closed when they arrived.
The original burial had cost Lee $11,000. The church has told him that he will have to pay a reduced fee to put his wife back in her resting place.
A different funeral home reached out to Lee and volunteered to do a burial and donate a casket at no additional cost.
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