LAS VEGAS SUN

For four years after her death, the two daughters of Pahrump teacher Claudia Nilson visited her grave to honor and talk to her -- until they were told their mother's body and casket were missing. In December 2002, more than four years after the 1998 death of their mother, a mortuary worker contacted the Nilson family to tell them Claudia Nilson's body and casket were missing from her grave. The family is now suing a Pahrump mortuary and the cemetery where they thought Nilson had been buried.

"The girls would go there monthly, if not weekly, to talk to their mom, that's why this is so devastating," Holly McGregor, an attorney for the Nilson family, said. "The youngest daughter said, 'Who have I been talking to all these years; it's as if her death is never going to end.' "

The whereabouts of Claudia Nilson's remains are still a mystery.

"How do you lose a body?" McGregor said. "Since 1998 we've practiced mortuary law and we've never seen a case where they flat out lost a body."

Nilson's daughters and their father, Greg, filed the lawsuit in June.

The lawsuit was filed in Clark County District Court against the town of Pahrump doing business as Chief Tecopa Cemetery, Pahrump Family Mortuary Group LLC doing business as Pahrump Family Mortuary and mortuary owner Mildred Hankes Janssen and her husband.

Attorneys for the Nilson family said the case was filed in Clark County for convenience and most likely will be moved to Nye County District Court.

The suit alleges that the Nilson family was told in 2002, more than four years after Claudia Nilson's funeral in 1998, that she is not in the Chief Tecopa Cemetery as contracted with Pahrump Family Mortuary.

The Nilson family alleges that her body and casket were removed and sold for profit without the family's knowledge or consent.

But Janssen said this week she believes the body is in the cemetery and that the problem arose because it wasn't buried in the proper place.

Greg Nilson was told that his wife's body and casket were missing by mortuary official Janssen, court documents say. Janssen said in an interview this week she told Nilson of the missing remains because the town of Pahrump, which has owned and managed Chief Tecopa Cemetery since the mid 1990s, allegedly had no plans to tell the family.

Janssen said she came forward in December 2002, six months after the discovery, because she felt it was the right thing to do and it "bothered me from day one."

Attorneys and officials for the town of Pahrump declined comment or could not be reached for comment.

The discovery that the body and casket were allegedly missing occurred in June 2002, when Teresa Nilson, Claudia Nilson's mother-in-law, died and was to be buried on top of Claudia Nilson's casket at Chief Tecopa Cemetery.

Janssen said that in 2002, her mortuary was handling the services for Teresa Nilson. She said she received a call from a Chief Tecopa Cemetery employee the day of Teresa Nilson's burial asking for more time.

"They said, 'Delay as long as you can, it's not ready,' " she said. "When I got down there, I looked in the grave (and Claudia's casket was not there). It wasn't the right time to holler right then and there." Janssen said the Chief Tecopa Cemetery funeral director told her at that time that somebody had "moved it."

"I said, 'How did somebody move it? The casket was 220 pounds, somebody pulled that big vault out?' " Janssen said. Teresa Nilson was buried as scheduled in June 2002, though the family wasn't told at that time that she wasn't buried with Claudia.

Janssen said this week that she believes Claudia Nilson is buried in the cemetery and that the headstone is simply in the wrong place.

The Nilson family left Claudia Nilson's funeral in 1998 before the casket was lowered into the ground, according to the lawsuit and Janssen.

Janssen said she stayed until the end, and vividly remembers the pink and white casket being lowered into the ground two rows away from where her first husband is buried.

"When we buried Claudia I was at the head of that grave," Janssen said.

Janssen said Claudia Nilson's body was embalmed by Pahrump Family Mortuary, which she said at the time of the 1998 funeral was owned by a group of California investors. Janssen said she worked for the company at the time of the 1998 funeral, but was not the funeral director. For the last three years Janssen said she has owned Pahrump Family Mortuary Group LLC.

Janssen said that she has never received any complaints and that this year she has handled the burials of 123 people.

Officials with the Nevada State Board of Funeral Directors, Embalmers and Operators of Cemeteries and Crematories, which regulates the state's funeral businesses, could not be reached for comment.

Janssen said when she found out that Claudia Nilson's casket and remains were not where they were supposed to be buried, she asked the town of Pahrump to dig up unmarked graves at the cemetery, but was told that couldn't be done.

"I've asked them for six months, have you found her, have you tried? They said 'we've probed.' " Janssen said. "I said you need to open the grave, open the lid, if it's a pink and white casket, that's Claudia's casket. They told me they weren't going to tell him. So I called him."

Nilson, through his California-based attorneys McGregor and Richard H. Geringer, said he was too upset to talk about his wife's death and the recent events and declined comment.

McGregor said Nilson was never told by Janssen that Janssen believes the body is still in the cemetery, just that it was missing.

Geringer said the plaintiffs have no evidence that Claudia Nilson's body was sold for profit, but included that charge in the lawsuit because her body is missing.

"That is a legal assertion, it's the only thing that makes sense to us," he said. "We're not saying we have evidence, but we have to put out some kind of explanation, we'd love to be wrong." McGregor said to her knowledge Claudia Nilson was not buried with anything valuable.

"If it was a grave robber, there'd be evidence that the grave was touched, unless it happened immediately after she was buried," McGregor said. "There is supposed to be security."

At Chief Tecopa Cemetery, next door to the town's new library, visitors are free to come and go, and must enter through a wrought iron gate. A dirt parking lot is available on cemetery grounds.

Claudia Nilson's marked grave, in lane M, is in the part of the cemetery closest to the road. The tombstone is closely surrounded by other graves from the same era.

The dirt around the tombstone is dry and cracked and appears to have been undisturbed for quite some time. A vase of marbles is behind the tombstone. A small white bud vase with a single faded silk rose sits next to the marker.

McGregor said Nilson waited almost two years before filing a lawsuit because the first Las Vegas law firm he contacted said they were "too busy." McGregor said the matter was dropped until one of the Nilsons' daughters, now a law student in California, came across a journal article about McGregor and Geringer and the practice of mortuary law.

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