NYC funeral home is sued by family who claims maggot crawled out of their dead daughter's eye
BROOKLYN, NEW YORK: A family is suing a Brooklyn funeral home for failing to properly preserve their daughter's body, who was so badly kept that a maggot crawled out of her eye. The body of Regina Christophe, who was 37 and died of natural causes on June 24, was not collected from the Medical Examiner by undertakers from the McManus Funeral Home until June 28. Her funeral was held days later on July 9.
Regina's mother, Chantel Jean, said that by the time the service took place, her daughter's body was so badly decomposed that her face had "melted" and a maggot came crawling out of one of her eyes. McManus Funeral Home is now being sued by the family, who has claimed that its staff did not perform the services they were supposed to after being hired.
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Chantel said her daughter looked like a "monster" at the time of burying her, News12 reported. "Her face looked like it was caved in. Actually, looks like it was burned as fake skin was like melting off her face, one eye maggot came out of her eye," the mother said. "The last image I saw was a monster in the casket. An animal deserves a better funeral than what my daughter received."
Chantel also said that the funeral home refused to let her see Regina the first time she tried to, claiming they had not dressed her. She said that the next time she tried, the facility did not let her see Regina because she had not been embalmed. Chantel claimed she saw her daughter only on the funeral service day.
McManus Funeral Home's owner said he believed his staff gave the family enough "warning" of how Regina would look. "I thought I gave them fair warning...we did the best we could," he said. Family attorney Kurt Robertson said that Regina's family did not deserve what they got. "Without question there should be an investigation. I have never see anything like this," Robertson said.
"The evidence strongly suggests she had not been embalmed, that she had been decomposing over the two weeks she had been at the funeral home,” Robertson said, according to New York Post. "Apart from all it was just the incredible stench of the decomposing body that permeated the funeral home," he said, adding, "It looks like a mud monster.”
McManus Funeral Home's website says, "For 100 years, we have strived to make sure that every family receives the care, attention and sensitivity we would expect for our loved ones". The website adds, "Letting go of a loved one is usually a very difficult process. In order to provide your family peace-of-mind, our funeral home offers complete care, so you can focus on comforting each other as you prepare to say goodbye to someone dear to you."
