State Rep. Mickey Michaux and his brother, lawyer Eric Michaux, are controlling stockholders of the cemetery. They are representing themselves in the trial.

The Mileses contend they are not sure where their daughter, Lanesha, is buried because of alleged negligent misconduct by Glennview and Parker.

"This case is about the Golden Rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you," lawyer Bill Goldston, who's representing the Mileses, told jurors in an opening statement Tuesday. "That's not what happened in this case. Far from that happened."

In a defense opening statement, Glennview blamed any mix-up on Parker. He, in turn, faulted Glennview.

The funeral and burial of Lanesha Miles took place on April 24, 2000.

But when her parents returned to Glennview on July 23, 2000, with flowers to observe what would have been their daughter's eighth birthday, the grave was not marked and they could not find it, the lawsuit says. So the family left without placing any flowers.

At one point, the family concluded a $650 contract with J and P Memorials to install a marker on the grave if it could be found, the suit adds.

The grave purportedly was located and the marker erected.

But when the family visited on Christmas Day of 2001 with more flowers, the plot was "desecrated," according to the suit. The new marker allegedly had been removed and flung aside. A marker for someone else stood in its place.

By Dec. 27, 2001, Lanesha's marker was moved to another grave, and someone else's marker remained on the original site, the suit says.

The Miles family has been informed that Lanesha's marker now rests on the correct plot, but they are unsure whether to believe it, lawyer Goldston told The Herald-Sun recently.

The only way to be certain would be to exhume the body, but that would be costly and would cause even more emotional distress, Goldston said.

"They're here looking for justice," Goldston said of the Mileses in his opening statement Tuesday. "They didn't do anything wrong."

Lawyer Eric Michaux, speaking for Glennview, described the issue to jurors as a "very, very sensitive" one.

"We don't minimize the loss, the discomfort that the Mileses have suffered," he added. "Certainly, a lot of sympathy surrounds this set of circumstances."

But Michaux said Glennview ultimately placed Lanesha's marker on the correct grave and gave her parents a deed to prove it.

If the marker originally was installed on the wrong plot, it was because of underhanded tactics by Parker, Michaux alleged. He said Parker routinely and surreptitiously installed markers without cemetery permission to avoid paying a $57 fee each time.

"The Glennview corporate office knew nothing about any of this," Michaux added. "Mr. Parker never paid. Mr. Parker doesn't do that. He doesn't pay the requisite installation fee."

Michaux said a financial verdict for the Mileses would not cure their uncertainty. Only an exhumation could do that, he suggested.

Jurors heard yet another version of events Tuesday from lawyer Michael A. Jones, representing Parker. He said Parker lived up to his contract with the Mileses by supplying the marker they paid for.

But Parker did not install the marker, Jones insisted. Rather, he paid a cemetery employee to place it on Lanesha's grave.

"There's no way Mr. Parker would have known where to take that grave marker," he added. "There's no way Mr. Parker or anyone else could have found where that grave site was."

The trial continues today.

The written lawsuit seeks damages "in excess of $10,000," which is the standard phrasing in North Carolina civil cases. However, the Mileses and their lawyer can ask for virtually any amount at the end of the court proceedings.

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