An Alabama family claims in a federal lawsuit that in a three-way mixup, a Maryville cremation company sent them the ashes of the wrong person instead of those of their deceased relative. The mixup also resulted in an elderly woman being incorrectly buried in the Tennessee Veterans Cemetery, the lawsuit alleges.

The parents and brothers of the late Mark Gibson, all of whom live in Foley, Ala., seek $500,000 in damages from Littlebrook Cremation Co. and its owner, Wallace Thurman.

Littlebrook Cremation has been a licensed crematorium since 1988 and has never had a complaint filed against it, according to records in the state Department of Commerce and Insurance.

Gibson, who lived in Clinton, Tenn., died on April 29. The lawsuit, filed Sept. 19, alleges that on May 10, just before a scheduled memorial service, the error was discovered.

The Gibsons discovered the error when they saw that the remains they were sent were accompanied with the identification tag of another man, Keith Vincent, according to Doug Trant, attorney for the Gibson family.

According to the complaint, the following sequence of events occurred after the Gibson family discovered the error:

n It was initially suspected that Gibson’s actual cremains were interred at the Tennessee Veterans Cemetery.

n Dr. William Bass, forensic anthropologist, determined that the cremains sent to the Gibsons were those of Vincent.

n But when the cremains in the Veterans Cemetery designated as those of Vincent were disinterred, it was determined that they were those of Betty June Reid.

n Cremains still in the possession of the Littlebrook Cremation Co. were identified by Bass as those of Gibson.

It is not clear from the court documents filed so far how the mixups occurred.

Trant said the remains of all three deceased parties “are where they are supposed to be now.”

Maryville attorney Carl P. McDonald, who represents the cremation firm, declined comment.

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2007/oct/06/cremains-mix-up-results-in-lawsuit/