US: Unknown woman discovered in mother's casket by North Carolina family

Two grieving sisters went to pay respects to their mother's body but instead saw another woman wearing her clothes inside the casket, according to a funeral parlour in North Carolina. The sisters Jennifer Taylor and Jennetta Archer found the blunder while visiting their mother's body at an Ahoskie funeral home on September 7, according to WAVY.

Their mother had no similarity to the woman in the coffin, according to Archer. The sisters confronted Hunter's Funeral Home employees, who initially denied the woman was someone else until they returned to the embalming chamber and discovered their mother Mary Archer's body.

Funeral home apologised to the family

The remains were switched at the funeral home, and the service went on. The funeral home stated that it apologised to the family, but Taylor and Archer said they have not gotten a call and are still waiting for answers to their queries. Archer said that the issue wasn't dealt with right away by anyone but would have been a different issue if they had just come out and stated they made a mistake. Archer also remarked that they are supposed to have a chart for each person and treat them like customers, so they don't get them mixed up.

Hunter's Funeral Home's lead embalmer told the TV station that the mix-up occurred on September 7. He further said that he apologised to the family and said it was an "honest mistake," claiming that this had never happened in his 40 years of embalming and that he had attempted to call Taylor and Archer to explain the situation. The sisters claim they never received that call and are looking for answers.

Similar incident from Michigan

In a similar incident, a few months ago, a Michigan family claimed that during their father's burial, a funeral home put the wrong person inside the casket, as per Meaww. Spenser Tillman, Larry Tillman's son, remarked that they were all very sad and all very distressed when they realised that the man in the casket was not his father. He further said that there were face traits that his father possessed and it was not there on the man in the casket.

(With inputs from AP)

(Image: Unsplash)