Reform of funeral service in England is urgently needed, according to a new report. A New Jersey funeral home is being sued for allegedly placing the wrong body in a casket during a family visitation. And a man writes a funny obituary for his late father. These stories and more are in the week in funeral news.
NEWS
Son Writes Hilarious, Loving Obituary for His Dad: “He Is God’s Problem Now”
By Cathy Free (The Washington Post)
When Charles Boehm sat down in his Houston home to write his father’s obituary, he was stumped. “I’d never written an obituary before, so I decided to Google, ‘What do you put in an obituary?’” said Boehm. His father, Robert Adolph Boehm, died October 6, 2024 at age 74 after falling and hitting his head in his Clarendon, TX, apartment. Read more here.
Commission Sends “Wrongful Burial” Case to Ohio AG for Possible Consumer Law Violations
By Lisa Rantala (WSYX)
After the Ohio Department of Commerce Cemetery Dispute Resolution Commission closed an investigation into a complaint about misused burial plots, the commission sent the case to the Ohio Attorney General. Read more here.
Funeral Home Put Someone Else’s Body in Our Dad’s Clothes, NJ Family Says in Suit
By Anthony G. Attrino (NJ Advance Media)
The family of a Gloucester County man who died last year is suing the funeral home that handled arrangements, claiming workers displayed someone else’s body the day before services were to be held. Read more here.
Report Calls for “Urgent” Funeral Sector Reform in England
By Emily Coady-Stemp and Katy Docherty-Warren (BBC News)
A report into a necrophiliac killer’s abuse of corpses in England has called for an independent regulator for the funeral sector be created “as a matter of urgency.” Sir Jonathan Michael, chair of the inquiry, said publication of its report had been expedited “in light of the recent distressing reports of neglect in the funeral sector.” Read more here.
U.S. Appeals Court Revives and Remands Alabama Burial Ground Dispute in Muscogee Nation Case
By Joshua Villanueva (UC Law San Francisco)
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has vacated a previous ruling that dismissed a lawsuit brought by the Oklahoma-based Muscogee (Creek) Nation, which challenged the construction of a casino in Alabama on land they claim as a sacred burial ground. Read more here.
Russian Military Destroyed Ancient Ukrainian Burial Mounds, Report Finds
By Sophia Kishkovsky (The Art Newspaper)
Russian forces have desecrated multiple ancient Ukrainian burial mounds in Zaporizhzhia, a Russian-occupied region of southeastern Ukraine, according to a new report by the Conflict Observatory, which studies Russia’s destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage by analyzing high-resolution satellite imagery. Read more here.
Family Learns Funeral Home Sent Mom’s Body to Wrong Country from TikTok Video, Suit Says
By Julia Marnin (Miami Herald)
A family found out from a TikTok video that a New York funeral home shipped their mother’s body to the wrong country, according to a new lawsuit. Read more here.