STOCKTON – It's natural to deeply miss a loved one who has died, but there's a kind of missing one Utah family just wasn't prepared for.
"It's been ghastly. It has just been so horrible," Kim Goodsell told KTXL. "This has just been the worst 75 hours of our lives."
Goodsell, who lives in Murray, Utah, said that after her brother Kevin died she made arrangements to have his remains shipped from Stockton, California.
She hired A Bay Area Crematory to do the job, but said that the remains that arrived bore a stranger's name.
"What is this?" she remembered asking. "Is this the person who does the cremation? Is this their name on the paper?"
"Well, no," a man with the crematory said, according to Goodsell. "That's the deceased's name. That's your brother's name."
"I said, 'This isn't my brother,'" Goodsell replied.
Goodsell had taken the unopened box to a mortuary in Utah, where they discovered the mistake. The remains were meant to go to a family in Massapequa, New York.
Clint Love, the owner of A Bay Area Crematory, declined a recorded interview, saying he preferred that his attorneys do that when they become available later.
Love said he is very apologetic and said this sort of thing hasn't happened since they have been in business.
KTXL verified that the business has no open complaints with the Better Business Bureau or the California Cemetery and Funeral Bureau, where their license is in good standing.
But Goodsell says, after this mix-up, she's still not sure how she can trust that the second set of remains, which she received earlier Saturday, are really those of her brother.
"We all have the same feeling. Is this really my brother. Is his really Kevin?" she said.
Goodsell say she wants A Bay Area Crematory to pay for DNA testing on that second set of remains, so she can rest assured and Kevin can rest in peace.
