A California family is suing multiple agencies after they received a casket from Texas they thought contained the body of a deceased loved one. Instead, there was the body of a stranger inside.
“They found out that it wasn’t the correct body at the funeral, in my opinion adding to the shock value,” said Megan David, attorney for the Gonzalez family, speaking with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “The widow, the friends, and family — they were all there.”
Long-haul truck driver Jose Carlos Gonzalez died in Grapevine, Texas, on March 20, 2020, far away from home.
His wife, Cecilia Gonzalez, made arrangements for an open-casket funeral service and burial with the Chula Vista Funeral Home in San Diego, California, as reported by WFAA.
Chula Vista was supposed to receive her husband’s body from Brown Owens & Brumley Family Funeral Home in Fort Worth, Texas.
Brown Owens & Brumley was supposed to receive it from Accu Care Mortuary Services, also based in Fort Worth.
Accu Care was supposed to pick it up from the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
However, Accu Care collected the body of a man named Jesse Gonzalez instead, initially destined for the University of North Texas Science Center (UNTHSC) in Fort Worth, where his body was to be harvested for organs and then cremated.
But it was not meant to be.
Instead, Jose Carlos Gonzalez’s body was transported by Accu Care to UNTHSC, and Jesse Gonzalez’s body made its long journey to Jose’s homecoming at the Chula Vista Funeral Home in California. Chula Vista embalmed him and put him in Jose’s casket.
Gonzalez’s family filed their lawsuit in March 2022, accusing multiple agencies involved in transporting Jose’s body of failing to verify which bodies they were sending where. The lawsuit claims the family “experienced extreme emotional distress” from the ordeal, according to WFAA.
The lawsuit states that the Gonzalez family seeks a jury trial and no less than $1 million in damages.