Family SHOCKED after funeral home buries stranger in WW2 vet’s grave next to his wife
MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE: A family was shocked when a funeral home told them they buried a stranger where their loved one was supposed to be buried just moments before the funeral.
The funeral of Thomas Pharr, 96, was scheduled on Tuesday, October 18, but his family learned someone else had been buried in his grave shortly before they tried to lay him to rest next to his wife of 63 years. Pharr, who died last week, lived a full life as a World War II veteran and later a captain in the Memphis Fire Department. He devoted his life to his family, who were left in disbelief after the Tuesday incident.
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“Very personable, very nice person. He would do anything for anybody. He’ll be missed, missed a whole lot, miss him now,” Thomas's son Butch Pharr told WREG. Dozens of loved ones made the trip to town on Tuesday to pay their final respects at the funeral at Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East. Pharr's wife had passed away several years ago and his family wanted to lay him to rest next to her for eternity. But as the ceremony was about to start, the funeral home staff shared some rather disturbing news. “He said, ‘Well I’ve got to just tell you the truth now. He said, ‘There’s another body in your dad’s grave,'” Butch said. “And somehow or another they put the wrong body in the wrong grave.” According to the family, staff told them the other body had been put in the plot earlier that day, and because it was covered they had to get an order from the health department as well as permission from the family of the deceased for it to be exhumed.
“This shouldn’t happen to anybody. I mean there’s really no closure until we know he’s next to our mom,” said Thomas Pharr’s daughter Janis McIntyre. WREG previously reported on issues with Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East as well as the company overseeing it, StoneMor Inc. The outlet reported on problems like failing to inform families in a timely manner about rats partially eating bodies, as well as body fluids leaking in a mausoleum at the company's Jackson, Tennessee location. “Everybody is saying, ‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’” Butch bemoaned, insisting that his family wants answers. “The blame or problem starts at the top, it doesn’t start at the very bottom. But nobody wants to take responsibility for anything that’s happened,” he added.
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The Pharr family is hoping for a quick resolution in their father's case. They are also warning others about the incident so no other families have to go through a similar ordeal. “It’s bad enough that it happened but it wouldn’t have been as bad to us if someone would have taken responsibility for what had happened instead of trying to pass it off,” Butch said. The family told WREG they also felt bad for the other family involved in the mix-up. That said, the Pharrs have been told their father's body is at the funeral home. They are hoping to bury him on Thursday, October 20.