MEMPHIS, TN (WREG) – A family is in disbelief after they say a Memphis funeral home buried a stranger where their father was supposed to rest – and they only found out after they arrived to pay their last respects.
Thomas Pharr died last week at the age of 96. He lived a full life as a World War II veteran and captain of the Memphis Fire Department. He dedicated his life to his family.
“Very human, very pleasant person. He would do anything for anyone. We will miss him, we will miss him very much, we will miss him now, ”said his son Butch Pharr.
On Tuesday, dozens of loved ones poured into town to pay their last respects at his funeral at Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East. Pharr would be buried next to his wife Nancy, who died several years ago. They had been married for 63 years.
As the ceremony was about to begin, the staff shared some alarming news.
“He said, ‘Well, I just have to tell you the truth now. … There is another body in your father’s grave,” Butch said. “And somehow they put the wrong body in the wrong grave.”
The family says staff told them the other body had been placed in the plot earlier in the day. But because he was already covered, they would have to get an order from the health department – signed by the family of the deceased – for him to be exhumed.
“This shouldn’t happen to anyone. I mean, there’s really no closure until we know he’s next to our mother,” said Janis McIntyre, Thomas Pharr’s daughter.
Nexstar’s WREG has reported extensively on issues with Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park East, as well as StoneMor Inc., the company that oversees it. Problems include not informing families on rats partially eating bodies in a timely manner, as well as leakage of bodily fluids in a mausoleum at the company’s location in Jackson, Tennessee.
While the Pharr family hopes for a resolution in their father’s case, they want to warn others so that no other family has to deal with a similar problem.
“It’s bad enough that it happened, but it wouldn’t have been so bad for us if someone had taken responsibility for what happened instead of trying to pass it on,” Butch said.
The family said they also feel bad for the other family involved in the confusing affair.
When a WREG crew visited the cemetery on Wednesday, they were evicted from the property. They were also told that a representative of the cemetery’s parent company would send in a statement. WREG has also contacted StonMor on several occasions for an explanation of the confusion, but so far has not heard back.
The family hopes to have the elder Pharr buried on Thursday.
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