THAT'S insane. Bodies have a way of disappearing (and in this case, appearing!) down there in San Antonio, don't they? So now they have an extra unknown female, but where is Grandmom? Horrible that another family is going through this.Originally Posted by TheRealBill
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
https://www.expressnews.com/news/loc...php?source=nlp
Family of San Antonio mystery woman identify body as that of the mother they thought had been cremated
In a heartbreaking moment Wednesday, two San Antonio families recovered the remains of their deceased matriarchs — one in a casket and the other in an urn — after the bodies were somehow swapped during funeral services.
“It was a very, very, emotional day. There were a lot of tears and a lot of anguish,” said Alex Katzman, an attorney representing the family of Rosita Esquivel, who said her body was wrongly placed in a casket for the rosary of Delores Gutierrez DeLeon, 78. “It has been really hard on the family and is not the kind of shock that they are going to get over quickly.”
DeLeon’s family filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Castillo Mission Funeral Home, claiming the mortuary lost DeLeon’s body and tried to pass off another woman as that of their mother. Family members said funeral home staff couldn’t say who the woman was, at one point insisting it was DeLeon. But a check for a prominent scar proved it wasn’t DeLeon, the family claimed.
Calls to the management of Castillo Mission Funeral Home have not been returned.
The San Antonio Express-News published an article about DeLeon and posted a photo at expressnews.com of the mystery woman taken by DeLeon’s family; the family was hoping someone would identify the woman and perhaps that could help find DeLeon.
Wednesday, the family of Esquivel, who died on April 23, the same day as DeLeon, identified the mystery woman as their mother.
Katzman said Esquivel’s family gathered April 30 at a different funeral home to say goodbye to their deceased loved one, who had died from cancer April 23.
When they saw the body in the casket, however, they didn’t recognize the person there.
But Funeral Caring USA assured family members that was their loved one and that she just looked different due to the makeup, Katzman said.
So the family moved forward with the service and cremation, and received an urn of ashes.
Wednesday, six days after the funeral, a neighbor sent a news article to the family about DeLeon. Attached to the article was a photo of Rosita Esquivel lying in state.
Comparing the sequence of events later, it was determined that the day of Esquivel’s services, May 1, was the same day of DeLeon’s rosary.
When the DeLeon family members looked in the casket just before the rosary was to begin, they were adamant that it was not the body of their matriarch.
Funeral home staff insisted that the woman was DeLeon, forcing the family to check for a scar from DeLeon’s hip replacement surgery. There was no scar, said Mark Louis Greenwald, an attorney representing DeLeon’s family.
San Antonio police were called, and the family reported that the body was missing.
The family then revoked the cremation order and told the funeral home to keep the “rosary body” in a safe place so the person could be identified.
After the neighbor provided the article and photo, the Esquivel family came forward saying the body was Rosita Esquivel.
Family members went to the Castillo-Mission Funeral Home and were able to confirm it by identifying their mother’s own surgical scars, Katzman said.
The Esquivel family could only assume the urn of ashes they had been given were those of DeLeon, so they gave the urn to the DeLeon family. Funeral Caring USA was not immeidately available for comment Wednesday.
Greenwald said the event was traumatic for both families and that now one family has lost its chance of paying last respects at a viewing while the other family will have to go through another funeral.
“They (DeLeon family members) are overjoyed that they got the remains back, but it wasn’t from the help of any funeral homes,” Greenwald said. “It was because of the news and the lawyers.”
But wait. All along we've been told this is impossible. It is impossible to accidentally cremate the wrong person. I've heard it again and again in news articles and discussions about this case. IMPOSSIBLE they say..... it just had to be Bill.
You are talking to a woman who has laughed in the face of death, sneered at doom and chuckled at catastrophe.
...Collector of Chairs. Reader of Books. Hater of Nutmeg...
Sorry for resurrecting this thread...but not all that sorry. I was curious as to the outcome of the lawsuit and case, so I looked here, at Julie Mott central. Glad that "Dick" was found liable and a judgement for $8M was levied.
For the record, my opinion has been and still is that Julie did actually get cremated, but there was some kind of big mixup and yes weird shenanigans with the casket. I really don't believe someone had JM's body, driving around like "Weekend at Bernie's." Nor do I believe some Satan-worshipper took her for sacrifice. And for all of Bill's cray-cray, which is sadly evident, I don't think he took her body and successfully hid it somewhere, even if he might have wanted to do just that.
Even embalmed bodies will decompose over time, there is no way for the average numbskull, even a crazy one, to prevent it. This whole thing was 100% the fault of the "Dick."
Poor Julie is either dispersed somewhere or is in someone else's urn, by mistake I believe. Either way she's gone and I hope her family will eventually heal from this horrible situation.
I’m sooo sorry to bump this thread AGAIN, but I’m somewhat alarmed. Considering the vast number of bodies that are sent to mortuaries every single day, I suppose a mix-up now and then isn’t considered a “pattern,” right? But Jesus-tap-dancing-Christ! Is it mostly a San Antonio thing? My brother and his wife recently retired and moved to San Antonio; would it be considered bad taste for me to give them a “heads up” on their local funeral homes? Maybe advise them to shop around? Does Consumer Reports even evaluate funeral homes?
But in all seriousness.... what if a person with, say, a strong religious belief that cremation is a sin were accidentally cremated? I’m not Catholic anymore, but back in the day cremation was a no-no. For some families, a financial settlement might be enough, but for someone with strict beliefs, a mistake such as that would be devastating. Personally, I feel a bit uncomfortable that this kind of mistake happens EVER, and I’m not all that religious. What’s to prevent mortuaries from just handing out generic mammalian ashes willy-nilly? Are there any legal safeguards? Is there any way for a cremated body to be IDed? DNA testing? Anything?
Also, a quick shoutout to Bill, who’s probably feeling (somewhat) vindicated right now. Even a bit smug, perhaps? Well played, Bill, well played.
Bill, revive this thread. MDS is getting boring.
Gooble goble gooble goble one of us one of us.
He's too busy chilling with Julie's corpse.
Doesn?t he have a kid and a family now?
Obviously I haven't been following this for some time. I didn't realize that. This is one of those threads that makes me roll my eyes when I see it bumped, but I know all you kiddies love it.
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