Mourning family of a deceased California woman were in for a shock after burying her as they realised that they had said their goodbyes to the wrong woman due to a mix-up by the mortuary.
The mix-up at Simpson Family Mortuary in Inglewood, California caused the family of 82-year-old Darlene Davidson to bury the wrong body.
Mourning family and friends of Davidson, who thought they had attended her funeral and burial on March 1, were in for a surprise when they found out they had said their goodbyes to the wrong woman.
Officials at Simpson Family Mortuary in Inglewood, California admitted to mistakenly switching the bodies of two women, something they didn't realise until after they had already buried one of the women, the New York Daily News reported.
Evans Davidson told NBCLA that he knew the woman in the casket wasn't his wife of 51 years. However, officials at the mortuary told him that Darlene looked different because of the embalming process.
"I was pretty certain it wasn't my wife, unless she did some awful changing," he said.
He got a call a couple of days later informing him that his wife's body might still be at the mortuary. It turns out another family had also complained that the right body was not in their casket.
Simpson's Family Mortuary spokesman apologised for the mix-up attributing it to a case of human error.
"We have standards and also we have systems in place to try to insure as much as we can that these types of things don't happen," spokesman Reginald Black said.
"We're human beings. And can we make a mistake? Of course we can," he said.
The mortuary has offered to exhume the body and cover the expenses for both families to hold proper burial services. The family of the second woman has not been publicly identified.
The California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau is investigating the incident.
Loved ones of the woman would had to go through the painful burial process again after the mortuary's grave mistake.
