Latest news with #AbbeyButler
The Guardian
3 days ago
- The Guardian
Family sues after funeral home sends son's brain in unmarked leaking box
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week. The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a 'good young man', their son, Timothy Garlington. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears. After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia, where their son died, to another where the family lived, in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box. At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler tried but could not open the red box, said the Butlers' attorney, L Chris Stewart, at the news conference. Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, 'which was brain matter. It's insane,' Stewart said. When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and a mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said. The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press. 'The parents' last memory is holding their son's brain,' said Stewart in an interview with the AP. 'I had to get rid of that car,' Lawrence Butler said, 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress. Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain 'separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion'. If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled as a biohazard. Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleged, they should not have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations. Julian Nix, the manager of the eponymous funeral home, told the AP that 'it was definitely not our fault' because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix told local news that his team believed the box held personal effects and that other funeral homes usually only send intact remains. Nix said that once they learned what was inside the box, they reported it to authorities. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found Nix & Nix wasn't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that were not yet available. The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning so that similar incidents will not happen again. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' said Stewart. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' Garlington, a veteran of the US marines who was working in school financial aid in Atlanta, according to his LinkedIn, has since been buried in Washington Crossing national cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still do not know whether his brain was buried with the rest of his remains. 'They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?' he said.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Marine veteran's brain returned by funeral home in an unmarked and leaking box, lawsuit claims
A couple is suing two funeral homes after their veteran son's brain was returned in an unmarked cardboard box that was leaking 'biohazardous liquid,' a lawsuit alleges. Lawrence and Abbey Butler are suing Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in Pennsylvania and Southern Cremations & Funeral in Georgia for the 'mishandling' of the remains of their son Timothy Garlington, a Marine veteran who died in November 2023. He died in Georgia, but was originally from Pennsylvania. In November, the couple hired Southern Cremations & Funerals to transport their son's remains to Nix & Nix Funeral Home in Philadelphia. A week later, Lawrence Butler picked up a 'white, unmarked cardboard box' that the couple thought contained their son's personal belongings, the filing states. The box began to smell and leak fluids in Butler's car. When the couple tried to remove the box, 'biohazardous liquid spilled' onto them, the lawsuit alleges. They reached out to the funeral homes to learn that the box contained their late son's brain. "The family has been destroyed twice," their lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, told Fox 5. The couple says they suffered 'serious mental and emotional distress' as a result of the funeral homes' mishandling of their son's remains, the suit stated. It called the defendants' conduct 'extreme and outrageous.' They've accused the defendants of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, for an unspecified amount in damages. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' Lawrence Butler told the Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' he added. 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' Stewart told the AP that after speaking to several other funeral homes, he learned the brain is not typically 'separated from [the] body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion.' In the circumstances that the body parts are separated, they are labeled as a biohazard. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' Stewart told the AP. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' The owner of Nix & Nix Funeral Homes said that his team didn't know that the box contained brain matter and noted that the state board did a thorough investigation and cleared them of wrongdoing. "Any body parts should be in the body. I don't understand why they would send his brains in a box, a regular box," Julian Nix, the owner of Nix and Nix Funeral Home, told Fox 5. "We immediately reported it to the state board and the medical examiner for inspection," Nix told the outlet. "When the state board investigated, they said that we did everything correct."
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Marine veteran's brain returned by funeral home in an unmarked and leaking box, lawsuit claims
A couple is suing two funeral homes after their veteran son's brain was returned in an unmarked cardboard box that was leaking 'biohazardous liquid,' a lawsuit alleges. Lawrence and Abbey Butler are suing Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in Pennsylvania and Southern Cremations & Funeral in Georgia for the 'mishandling' of the remains of their son Timothy Garlington, a Marine veteran who died in November 2023. That month, the couple hired Southern Cremations & Funerals to transport their son's remains to Nix & Nix Funeral Home in Philadelphia. A week later, Lawrence Butler picked up a 'white, unmarked cardboard box' they thought contained his personal belongings, the filing states. The box began to smell and leak fluids in his car. When the couple tried to remove the box, 'biohazardous liquid spilled' onto them, the lawsuit alleges. They reached out to the funeral homes to learn that the box contained their late son's brain. "The family has been destroyed twice," their lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, told Fox 5. The couple says they suffered 'serious mental and emotional distress' as a result of the funeral homes' mishandling of their son's remains, the suit stated. It called the defendants' conduct 'extreme and outrageous.' They've accused the defendants of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, for an unspecified amount in damages. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' Lawrence Butler told the Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' he added. 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' Stewart told the AP that after speaking to several other funeral homes, he learned the brain is not typically 'separated from [the] body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion.' In the circumstances that the body parts are separated, they are labeled as a biohazard. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' Stewart told the AP. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' The owner of Nix & Nix Funeral Homes said that his team didn't know that the box contained brain matter and noted that the state board did a thorough investigation and cleared them of wrongdoing. "Any body parts should be in the body. I don't understand why they would send his brains in a box, a regular box," Julian Nix, the owner of Nix and Nix Funeral Home, told Fox 5. "We immediately reported it to the state board and the medical examiner for inspection," Nix told the outlet. "When the state board investigated, they said that we did everything correct."
The Independent
3 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Marine veteran's brain returned by funeral home in an unmarked and leaking box, lawsuit claims
A couple is suing two funeral homes after their veteran son's brain was returned in an unmarked cardboard box that was leaking 'biohazardous liquid,' a lawsuit alleges. Lawrence and Abbey Butler are suing Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in Pennsylvania and Southern Cremations & Funeral in Georgia for the 'mishandling' of the remains of their son Timothy Garlington, a Marine veteran who died in November 2023. That month, the couple hired Southern Cremations & Funerals to transport their son's remains to Nix & Nix Funeral Home in Philadelphia. A week later, Lawrence Butler picked up a 'white, unmarked cardboard box' they thought contained his personal belongings, the filing states. The box began to smell and leak fluids in his car. When the couple tried to remove the box, 'biohazardous liquid spilled' onto them, the lawsuit alleges. They reached out to the funeral homes to learn that the box contained their late son's brain. "The family has been destroyed twice," their lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, told Fox 5. The couple says they suffered 'serious mental and emotional distress' as a result of the funeral homes' mishandling of their son's remains, the suit stated. It called the defendants' conduct 'extreme and outrageous.' They've accused the defendants of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, for an unspecified amount in damages. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' Lawrence Butler told the Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' he added. 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' Stewart told the AP that after speaking to several other funeral homes, he learned the brain is not typically 'separated from [the] body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion.' In the circumstances that the body parts are separated, they are labeled as a biohazard. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' Stewart told the AP. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' The owner of Nix & Nix Funeral Homes said that his team didn't know that the box contained brain matter and noted that the state board did a thorough investigation and cleared them of wrongdoing. "Any body parts should be in the body. I don't understand why they would send his brains in a box, a regular box," Julian Nix, the owner of Nix and Nix Funeral Home, told Fox 5. "We immediately reported it to the state board and the medical examiner for inspection," Nix told the outlet. "When the state board investigated, they said that we did everything correct."
The Guardian
4 days ago
- The Guardian
Family sues after funeral home sends son's brain in unmarked leaking box
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week. The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a 'good young man', their son, Timothy Garlington. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears. After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia to another in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box. At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler could not open the red box, said the Butlers' attorney, L Chris Stewart, at the news conference. Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, 'which was brain matter. It's insane,' Stewart said. When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and some mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said. The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the AP. 'The parents last memory is holding their son's brain,' said Stewart in an interview with the Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' Lawrence Butler said, 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress. Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain 'separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion'. If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled biohazardous. Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleges, they should not have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations. Julian Nix, the manager of the titular funeral home, told the AP that 'it was definitely not our fault' because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix said they reported it to authorities once they learned what was inside. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found they weren't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that were not yet available. The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning, so that similar incidents will not happen again. Garlington, a veteran of the US marines who was working in financial aid for schools, has since been buried in Washington Crossing National Cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still do not know whether Garlington's brain was buried with the rest of him. 'They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?' he said.
