2010 was a year of mishandled Human Remains-Your Funeral Guy

One could argue that Arlington National Cemetery Led the way of Mishandled Human Remains in 201o. ANC was the highest visibility point of the the mishandling of human remains.

Surprisingly, the mishandling of human remains is a problem becoming apparent across the land. This problem was alive in well in 2010 and will continue in 2011.

The Army has launched the first criminal investigation into the misplacement of remains at Arlington National Cemetery after discovering the cremated remains of eight people dumped in a single grave site there.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Sevice Corporation International(NYSE:SCI) had 2010 example of wrong body , wrong grave in Massachusetts.

 

A Recent Example is here:

Funeral Home Shut After Giving Widower Wrong Ashes

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Funeral Scandal is as sad thing and this sort of Scandal does damage to Families and the funeral business as a whole.

Related articles

• US investigates burial of eight in grave of ‘unknown’ soldier (telegraph.co.uk)

$3 Fee For Leaving Flowers at MJ Burial place-Your Funeral Guy

Now You can leave Flowers  for Michael Jackson’s  grave for  $3.00 Forest Lawn Cemetery, a place not so hard up for Cash charging fans for leaving flowers at his burial site inside the Mausoleum.

Fans have been leaving  memorial mementos at a stage,  but no more, a new policy has taken place.

According to sources at the infamous burial space, Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA has decided to take down the stage where fans were previously allowed to place gifts — and are now enacting a new gifting policy … so long as fans pay the price and abide by the rules.

Effective immediately, cemetery staff will take gifts for MJ inside the mausoleum where fans are still forbidden from setting foot — for a $3 fee … oh yeah, as long as those gifts are flowers.

via www.tmz.com

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Guess they still want to cash in on the Michael Jackson Burial

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Arlington National Cemetery Exhumes Misplaced Bodies-YourFuneralGuy

Arlington National Cemetery Image via Wikipedia

Although solutions to the Arlington National Cemetery Scandal Are well on the way, bodies have been exhumed from the wrong graves according to the AP and USA Today.

This is ad scenario for America’s Most hallowed cemetery and Grave sites.

Arlington National Cemetery has found at least three bodies in the wrong graves since an investigation into a record-keeping mess, and there could be more, cemetery officials say.

Those were the first to be exhumed since the Army released a report in June that found major record-keeping errors and improperly marked graves and headstones at the military cemetery in Virginia.a www.usatoday.com

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• Three Misplaced Bodies Found In Arlington Cemetery Grave (huffingtonpost.com)
• Is That Really My Son Buried There? (waronterrornews.typepad.com)
• Arlington Opens Graves, 3 Misplaced Bodies (abcnews.go.com)
• Arlington opens graves, finds 3 misplaced bodies (seattletimes.nwsource.com)

sweeping changes coming to Arlington National Cemetery|YourFuneralGuy

Image via Wikipedia

The secretary of the army has ordered major changes at Arlington National Cemetery. This was the result of mishandled grave sites and expensive  government contracts that were not supervised and completed.

The secretary of the Army has ordered widespread changes to the way Arlington National Cemetery operates after a report found a “general breakdown in sound business practices” that included poor financial oversight, violation of contracting regulations and a lack of competition for lucrative contracts.

via www.washingtonpost.com

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• Shakeup for Arlington Cemetery (washingtonpost.com)

6600 grave errors? At Arlington National Cemetery?-yourfuneralguy

Image via Wikipedia

A Democratic senator is claiming there may been as many as 6,600 grave errors at Arlington National Cemetery.  This a sad story for the United States of America.

As government investigation of the ANC cemetery continues there is less tolerance for excuses.

Snippet:

Under hostile questioning from senators, two former top officials of Arlington National Cemetery acknowledged Thursday that they had been aware of problems for years with unmarked and mismarked graves and mishandled remains.

Former superintendent John C. Metzler said he accepted “responsibility for all my actions and for all of my team’s actions.”

Metzler and former assistant superintendent Thurman Higginbotham, who answered some questions but took the Fifth Amendment on most, had been subpoenaed to appear at the hearing before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Operations subcommittee.

via www.kansascity.com

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• 6,600 Arlington Cemetery Graves May Be Labeled Wrong (huffingtonpost.com)
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One Year Later|Sheriff Recomends No Burials at Burr Oak-yourfuneralguy

One year after the gruesome revelations  at Burr Oak Cemetery the Cook County Sheriff is not recommending burials take place at that location. Stating that Folks are emotionally damaged due to the scandal, Sheriff Tom Dart feels that  conducting burials there would be not be workable.

It’s been a year since police began discovering skeletal remains above ground at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart took over Burr Oak Cemetery in the days and weeks after the bones were being discovered and an alleged grave dumping scandal was uncovered.

New owners are in line to take over, but the sheriff says they should not put new graves in the area where most of the skeletal remains were found on the northwest corner of Burr Oak.

Dart says, “You can never operate it like any ol’ cemetery. Certain areas are sacrosanct. You can’t dig there because there are remains back there and they’re never going to be actually excavated.”

Sheriff Dart says that, in the end, the Burr Oak scandal left a lot of emotionally damaged families.

Burr Oak Cemetery is open for burials once again, but Dart doesn’t think there’s much, if any, room to bury any more bodies. He says even after all the work to sort out the hodge podge of burial records there, there are still occasional problems, like going to bury someone only to find “there’s somebody already in there.”

via wbbm.cbslocal.com

Over 300 graves were desecrated at Burr Oak Cemetery. There was a grave plot selling scandal with four people arrested. There is yet to be a trial in this matter.

The scandal has brought new cemetery legislation in the State of Illinois, but the fate of the National legislation proposed by Congressman Bobby Rush-the Bereaved Consumers Bill of Rights Act HR 3655-remains to be seen.

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Senator Robert Byrd to be Buried at Columbia Gardens Cemetery Arlington, Virginia |Your Funeral Guy

Although no formal burial plans have been announced for Senator Robert Byrd,  the  Family Burial Site,  where  his wife Erma is buried  has the Senators  name on the gravestone. This is located at Columbia Gardens Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

The time of and date of a graveside Funeral Ceremony has not been announced. Senator Byrd is already listed as a famous internment at this cemetery by FindaGrave.com.

Snippet:

Byrd, Robert Carlyle b. November 20, 1917  d. June 28, 2010
US Senator. He was born Cornelius Calvin Sale, Jr. and after his mother died in the 1918 influenza epidemic he was raised by his aunt and uncle, who renamed him. In 1946 he won a seat in the West Virginia House of Delegates, serving until 1950, when he was elected to the State Senate, where he served until 1952. That year he was the successful Democratic nominee for a seat in the US House of Representatives and served three terms. Byrd was elected to the US Senate in 1958 and served from 1959.

via www.findagrave.com

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Columbia Gardens  Cemetery Photo from flickr under the creative commons license from_rockinfree’s photostream

No copyright on  Byrd Headstone Photo,  link http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18821093

Accountability At Arlington National Cemetery|Your Funeral Guy

Your Funeral Guy first reported on the record keeping problem, and potential mishandling of Graves at Arlington National Cemetery in November 2009. In spite of some recent reporting at the Washington Post on the WhistleBlowing done on ANC the army appears to have  investigated and handled this situtaion fairly and objectively.

Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh (right) holds a Pentagon press conference, June 10, 2010, to address problems brought to light by a recent investigation of inappropriate practices and mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery.

Snippet from the Washington Post article from a week ago.

There is good reason to believe there are thousands — perhaps more than 15,000 — such desecrations of our military dead and their families.

via www.washingtonpost.com

There is a problem with the June 20th report and the 15,000 Grave desecration Number. NO Documentation and when making a statement like the POST should document it. The Washington Post is correct on one thing. The Whistleblower, Gina Gray is owed an apology by  Department of the Army.

I first heard rumblings about this when I began conducting funerals at ANC in 2003. The situation did not occur overnight and that certain officials had an interest in keeping it quiet.Given the Number of funerals conducted and number of people involved with Funerals and burials at Arlington it is amazing that there have not been more difficulties. THE PROBLEMS GO DIRECTLY TO THE LACK OF COMPUTERIZED RECORDS. THIS IS A CLEAR ADMINISTRATIVE ERROR.

Hundreds of folks at ANC do all they can to honor our war hero’s in the best way possible Everyday. AND YES THERE SHOULD NEVER BE AN ERROR IN ANY MILITARY HERO’S BURIAL OR GRAVE.

A Burial at ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY IS A MOVING EVENT THAT ONE NEVER FORGETS. THE BEST FUNERALS AND BURIALS ON EARTH TAKE PLACE THERE.

THIS ADMINISTRATION ERROR IS UNFORTUNATE-Easily FIXED, and should have been taken care of Years ago. A GREAT PLACE  “ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY” WILL SOON BE GREATER BECAUSE OF THE WHISTLEBLOWING AND THE INVESTIGATION BY THE DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY.

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World’s Largest Funeral Corporation 2010 Grave scandal|YourFuneralGuy

The World’s Largest Funeral Corporation has had yet another Grave scandal- This time it involves the other woman . It does appear that SCI(Service Corporation International)  views itself too big to care about their families and clients..

This week I had the occasion to observe A “Sudden Death” Cemetery Plot purchase at an SCI Cemetery, It took all my strength to Keep my mouth shut as NYE:SCI fleeced a family of thousands of Dollars.

Snippet From the Latest SCI, Dignity Cemetery scandal reported in the Press.

The last place you want to find The Other Woman is on her back next to your husband. Especially when he’s dead. A woman named Lillas Hawkins in California found just that when she went to visit her husband’s grave two weeks ago. When she pointed out the error to a cemetery worker, she says he responded, “We are in terrible trouble.” The cemetery is owned by a company named Dignity.

via consumerist.com

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Just another SCI case of the wrong person in the wrong grave.

Simon Monjack Funeral 5/27, Grave next to Brittany Murphy|YourFuneralGuy

The eccentric husband of Actress Brittany Murphy was laid to rest in a Jewish Ceremony next to his actress wife. This burial took place at Forest lawn Memorial Park in the Los Angeles  area. Movie Star  Brittany Murphy and her husband Simon Monjack have Graves Next to each other. Funeral services were Thursday, 5/27 2010

About 75 friends and family members gathered in Los Angeles Thursday to bid farewell to Brittany Murphy’s husband Simon Monjack, who died Sunday.

The private orthodox Jewish service, presided over by Rabbi David Baron, took place in the Chapel of the Hills, the same memorial chapel where Murphy was eulogized in December after her death. Monjack was then buried next to his late wife at Forest Lawn Memorial Park.

via www.people.com

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