The parents of a premature infant who died filed a lawsuit because the child was buried at Santa Ana Cemetery before they arrived at the graveyard. Carmen Suaste and Fernando Lopez claimed in the Superior Court suit filed last week that the Orange County Cemetery District and New Options Funeral Service breached a contract and caused intentional infliction of emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified damages. The case is unusual because the couple sought help from the Mexican consul's office in Santa Ana to exhume the body.

"When they said he had been buried, I didn't get a chance to say goodbye," Suaste said. "I didn't know if he was in the casket. I needed proof. I needed to see him. They could have sold his organs for all I know. I just couldn't let him go without seeing him for one last time."

The couple's son was born prematurely after five and a half months of gestation and he died. Lopez said he bought a plot at Santa Ana Cemetery and was told that the burial would be at 1 p.m. on Dec. 6. But when he, Suaste and family and friends arrived, they learned that the child had been buried at 11 a.m.

Several days after the burial, the body was exhumed and Suaste verified that it was her son, whom they had named Angel Lopez. They then held a burial service, for which the couple were billed.

Angus McAulay, owner of New Options, said the Placentia mortuary followed funeral instructions given by the family, which were completed at minimal cost.

"This is so unfortunate that it grieves me. We bent over backward to help them," McAulay said.

http://www.local6.com/news/2291055/detail.html