Amentha Hunt went to Harrison-Ross Mortuary in Compton, Calif., to pay her respects to her uncle Otis Adkinson, who died on Feb. 28 at 80. But though her family signed a contract with the business to prepare her uncle’s body for burial and gave them one of his suits to wear at the April 7 viewing, Hunt made a surprising, horrifying discovery.
“It was a guy laying there in my uncle’s suit, but it wasn’t my uncle,” Hunt told KCAL News. “I just kept looking at him. I am like ‘He couldn’t have gotten that dark.’”
Hunt says she tried telling a mortuary employee that they had the wrong body, but they dismissed her concerns until she showed them a picture that proved the man they were looking at was not Adkinson. Once the mortuary realized the mixup, guests had to wait three hours while they prepared the right body for burial.
Now, Otis Adkinson’s family is suing the funeral home for “negligence, breach of contract and intentional infliction of emotional distress.” Language in the lawsuit they filed with the Superior Court of the State of California, County of Los Angeles on May 15 states that the family was “extremely distraught leading to confusing, emotional distress, and arguments amongst the family about why the wrong corpse was at the viewing.”
Family attorney Elvis Tran says he wants justice for Adkinson’s family and to make sure a mixup like this doesn’t happen to anyone else.
“For them to come in and see the wrong corpse, and for the mortuary to deny it’s the wrong corpse, we think it’s really just a basic standard of care that they messed up on,” he told KCAL News. “They really need to improve their ways so they don’t do this to another family.”
No matter what happens with their case, Amentha Hunt told KCAL News that she still lives with the pain of seeing someone else in her uncle’s suit.
“It’s hurting,” she said. “To view the wrong corpse, I still can see that guy.”