Funeral mix-up: Sisters find dead stranger in mother’s casket

Two grieving sisters from North Carolina in the United States (US) were in for quite the surprise when they opened their mother’s casket – finding a complete stranger inside and dressed in their mom’s clothes.

According to WAVY-TV, a local news channel, Jennifer Taylor and Jennetta Archer had gone to see their mother’s body at a funeral home on 7 September 2021, when they discovered the mistake.

“There’s no similarity in the person. Their size was way off. When the first person had the clothing on, she was swimming in the clothes because she was so small compared to my mother,” Archer told the station.

Funeral home apologises for mix-up

After realising the mistake, Taylor and Archer approached the funeral home – but they refused to acknowledge there had been a mix-up and instead tried to assure the sisters that the person inside the casket was indeed their mother.

The funeral home soon had no choice but to fess up after the real body was found to still be in the embalming room. They quickly made a switch so the showing could continue as the sisters had originally planned.

According to WAVY-TV, one of the funeral parlour employees confirmed the error but refused to speak on camera. They claimed to have reached out to the sisters, however Taylor and Archer told the broadcaster they haven’t received a phone call or any other type of communication.

News-Herald spoke to another staffer who took responsibility for the incident and said the mistake happened because the caskets of the two women were the same color.

“I dressed the one I thought was Mrs. Archer and then found out it was the wrong person when the family arrived for the private viewing,” they are quoted as having said.

The incident is one of many – in some instances, funeral parlours have buried or even cremated the wrong body.