Family ‘find wrong man in loved one’s casket wearing his suit’

A family claim a funeral home put the wrong man in their loved one’s coffin and dressed the body up in their dead relative’s suit.

The family of Otis Adkinson, 80, are suing Harrison-Ross Mortuary in Compton, California, for the alleged corpse mix-up.

They even accuse a worker at the funeral home of dismissing their complaints and trying to reassure them that the dead body was Otis.

Harrison-Ross Mortuary has denied the allegations.

Otis, who his family described as a ‘good ole country boy’, died on February 28.

But when niece Amentha Hunt turned up at the mortuary, she claimed the body was not the same as the one she had prepared for burial.

She told local station KCAL News: ‘It was a guy laying there in my uncle’s suit, but it wasn’t my uncle.

‘It shouldn’t have happened. I didn’t make arrangements there to see the wrong body.’

She told a funeral home worker, who allegedly insisted the stranger’s corpse was her uncle.

‘That’s not my uncle,’ Amentha said.

‘My uncle wouldn’t have gotten that dark… I showed a picture and she said “Yeah, you’re right, give us one minute.”‘

Amentha had to wait three hours before Otis could be laid to rest, she claimed.

Amentha said she cannot forget the image of an unfamiliar figure in her uncle’s clothes.

She claimed: ‘It’s hurt. I still think about it. That’s something that’s never going to go away, to view the wrong corpse.

‘I still can see that guy.’

Hunt’s lawyer, Elvis Tran, said the incident was outrageous.

She added: ‘For them to come in and see the wrong corpse, and for the mortuary to deny it’s the wrong corpse, we think it’s really just a basic standard of care that they messed up on.

‘They really need to improve their ways so they don’t do this to another family.’

Harrison-Ross Mortuary said it will file a cease-and-desist letter against Amentha.

The mortuary has been approached for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@usnewsrank.com.

For more stories like this, check our news page.