A New York family wants answers after a funeral home allegedly shipped their grandmother's body to the wrong country. By the time they sorted the error, the grandmother's corpse was badly decomposed.
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It's not the first incident for the funeral home in question. Previously, families have accused the organization of losing bodies. The family of the deceased filed a lawsuit highlighting the emotional trauma the incident caused them.
"It was all about money," said the late grandmother's youngest son, Manuel Minchala, to New York Post. "Not even an animal can make a mistake like this."
The Maldonado family is angry with RG Ortiz Funeral Home. After Carmen Maldonado passed away, they paid the funeral home to ship her to Ecuador to be buried. This happened back in May. Unfortunately, they ended up shipping the casket to Guatemala. The grandmother also sat there for two weeks, badly decomposing.
Funeral Home Made Mistake With Grandmother
"The hands of the body, the skin was falling off, so they had to wrap them in Saran wrap," the family's lawyer, Phil Rizzuto, told The Post. "I can't imagine what the family is feeling like, or what the family went through seeing that."
"Why did the funeral home lie to us?" said younger brother Manuel. "My mom was in Guatemala for 16 days." The funeral home took Maldonado's body on May 20. They had a small viewing and service in the Bronx.
From there, they were supposed to send the grandmother's remains to the Ecuador town of Parque del Paz. The family wanted her buried in her home country. However, it appears that it made a mistake.
"Carmen Maldonado was not properly prepared for transport and was carelessly sent to the wrong country while in the care and custody of the defendant, RG Ortiz Funeral Home Inc.," the complaint charged.
Additionally, the family only learned about the mistake after a local Guatemalan journalist reported on the mix-up. The journalist uploaded a video online via TikTok, which a family member saw.
"My cousin sent the video and I could not believe it," daughter Rosa Sincha also said. "I was devastated. I couldn't believe that this could be such a big confusion — I started to cry. It was incredibly upsetting."
