WESLACO - Families say cemetery workers dug up loved ones and moved them without permission.
"It's not right," says Noe Cavazos.
He tells us during a visit to his brother-in-law's grave, he noticed it had moved. And the headstone was missing.
Rudy Garza, Cavazos' brother-in-law, was originally buried in 1977 at Highland Memorial Park in Weslaco. Cavazos says the World War II veteran was accidentally placed in someone else's pre-paid plot. He said when the owners of the plot needed the space, Garza's remains were moved to a plot nearby.
As for the veteran's headstone, Cavazos says it was tossed into the weeds. He took a photo of it, which was with a pile of other headstones.
The cemetery is owned by Service Corporation International, the nation's largest funeral company. According to Cavazos, SCI employees told him they didn't have a new plot ready for his brother-in-law when they moved him.
"They disintered his body, put him in a shed, left him there half a day," he says.
The Houston-based company denies they moved the body.
But NEWSCHANNEL 5 has proof it's happened before.
Seven years ago, Marcos Guerra's body was secretly dug up by workers at Mont Meta in San Benito. That's another SCI-owned cemetery.
"It's like I had gotten a kick in the stomach," says Juanita Guerra, the man's widow.
The pain is still raw for her and her daughters.
"When we got to his grave, you could just tell it had been tampered with," explains Guerra's daughter, Julie Ramirez.
When the family confronted cemetery workers, they claimed they were doing landscaping.
The family sued the company. They learned SCI employees had buried Marcos Guerra in the wrong plot. They tried to cover up their mistake by digging up his coffin at night, so no one would see.
"Yeah, they had it attached to a bulldozer, a backhoe, swinging in the air, moving it to another area," says Richard Roth, the Guerras' attorney.
In court, SCI General Manager Ray McManness admitted the company moved Marcos Guerra's body without the family's consent.
A former SCI employee blamed bad record-keeping for the mistake.
Jessica Dominguez-Alavarez used to work for the company. She tells us, "The paperwork was missing."
She says they didn't have computerized records, because SCI refused to buy computers. Burial information was scribbled in old books.
A jury found SCI guilty on 11 counts. The charges included lying to the state, acting with malice, and intentionally inflicting severe emotional distress.
The jury awarded the Guerra family $11 million in damages.
SCI is appealing the case.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 uncovered other court documents involving SCI. The company's been accused of mishandling bodies and other wrongdoing in half a dozen local cemeteries and a funeral home they own and operate.
They include:
"It's not right," says Noe Cavazos.
He tells us during a visit to his brother-in-law's grave, he noticed it had moved. And the headstone was missing.
Rudy Garza, Cavazos' brother-in-law, was originally buried in 1977 at Highland Memorial Park in Weslaco. Cavazos says the World War II veteran was accidentally placed in someone else's pre-paid plot. He said when the owners of the plot needed the space, Garza's remains were moved to a plot nearby.
As for the veteran's headstone, Cavazos says it was tossed into the weeds. He took a photo of it, which was with a pile of other headstones.
The cemetery is owned by Service Corporation International, the nation's largest funeral company. According to Cavazos, SCI employees told him they didn't have a new plot ready for his brother-in-law when they moved him.
"They disintered his body, put him in a shed, left him there half a day," he says.
The Houston-based company denies they moved the body.
But NEWSCHANNEL 5 has proof it's happened before.
Seven years ago, Marcos Guerra's body was secretly dug up by workers at Mont Meta in San Benito. That's another SCI-owned cemetery.
"It's like I had gotten a kick in the stomach," says Juanita Guerra, the man's widow.
The pain is still raw for her and her daughters.
"When we got to his grave, you could just tell it had been tampered with," explains Guerra's daughter, Julie Ramirez.
When the family confronted cemetery workers, they claimed they were doing landscaping.
The family sued the company. They learned SCI employees had buried Marcos Guerra in the wrong plot. They tried to cover up their mistake by digging up his coffin at night, so no one would see.
"Yeah, they had it attached to a bulldozer, a backhoe, swinging in the air, moving it to another area," says Richard Roth, the Guerras' attorney.
In court, SCI General Manager Ray McManness admitted the company moved Marcos Guerra's body without the family's consent.
A former SCI employee blamed bad record-keeping for the mistake.
Jessica Dominguez-Alavarez used to work for the company. She tells us, "The paperwork was missing."
She says they didn't have computerized records, because SCI refused to buy computers. Burial information was scribbled in old books.
A jury found SCI guilty on 11 counts. The charges included lying to the state, acting with malice, and intentionally inflicting severe emotional distress.
The jury awarded the Guerra family $11 million in damages.
SCI is appealing the case.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 uncovered other court documents involving SCI. The company's been accused of mishandling bodies and other wrongdoing in half a dozen local cemeteries and a funeral home they own and operate.
They include:
- Highland Memorial Park, Weslaco
- Magic Valley Cemetery, Las Milpas
- Palm Valley Memorial Gardens, Pharr
- Mont Meta Memorial Park, San Benito
- Restlawn Memorial Park, La Feria
- Buena Vista Burial Park, Brownsville
- Buena Vista Funeral Home, Brownsville
At Magic Valley Cemetery in Las Milpas, workers dug up and moved a body without getting permission. A 2003 memo shows the cemetery manager was suspended without pay for just two day. He still works for SCI.
The company is also accused of selling spaces already owned by others, selling crypts in a masoleum that was never built, and storing a body next to trash cans, because there wasn't room in the refrigerator.
At least eight families claim SCI buried their loved ones in the wrong plots.
"It's happening to us. It's happening to other families. It's gonna continue," says Esther Martinez.
NEWSCHANNEL 5 tried talking to SCI's lawyers. They had no comment.
As for Rudy Garza, the World War II veteran, whose body was moved, we learned the new plot he was in also belonged to someone else. And SCI kept it a secret.
His body is now moving his body to a cemetery not owned by SCI. They hope it will really be his final resting place.
"It's hard. I get emotional as you can tell. But at least we know where's at now," says Cavazos.
SCI continues to fight all the lawsuits against them. The families awarded multi-million dollar settlements probably won't see any money for a long time. The cemetery company is planning to appeal the cases all the way to the Supreme Court.
An SCI spokesperson released a statement to NEWSCHANNEL 5 about the Rudy Garza case.
They wrote, "Yes, he was buried in a spot that was incorrect. There was a double sale. My understanding is he was not moved until the court ordered disinternment that was sanctioned by the family. I am going to assume that we had a paperwork error. It's important to note that since this happened, we have instituted new procedures and trained our people to insure that something like this doesn't happen again."
Our five-month investigation uncovered more about SCI. They were involved in a scandal that broke out seven years ago in Florida. SCI workers there mishandled remains and even lost a man's body.
The company faced charges of desecrating remains, breaking open burial vaults and dumping the contents into the woods, crushing vaults to make room for others, mixing body parts from different people, and digging up and reburying remains in locations other than the plots purchased.
A judge would later approve a $100 million settlement for dozens of families, citing graphic accounts of mishandles burials and grave desecration.
SCI also agreed to spend $11 million to improve burial conditions, pay a six million dollar settlement with the Florida attorney general's office, and pay a million dollar fine in a criminal case against the corporation.
SCI owns more than 400 cemeteries and 2,200 funeral homes.
Source: http://www.krgv.com/content/news/investigations/story/Caskets-Allegedly-Moved-Without-Familys-Consent/YscK2Y6NxUyZ0nf7tGV4Xg.cspx
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