A family is seeking justice after a Camden funeral home allegedly dressed the wrong body in their deceased loved one’s clothes and placed them in their casket.
As Law&Crime reports, the lawsuit, first filed in September, alleges Boyd Funeral Home workers were negligent when they put the wrong body in Addison Jenkins’ clothes after he died in February 2023 and then claimed it was Addison Jenkins in that casket.
Jenkins’ wife, Dorothy, brought his clothes and personal belongings to the funeral home days before the services.
“At or around 4:00 p.m. on February 17th, Plaintiffs approached the casket supposedly holding Addison and became immediately distressed and angered when they saw another unrecognizable corpse dressed in Addison’s clothes and belongings,” according to a complaint filed on Sept. 5 by the family of Jenkins. “The Plaintiffs were shocked, upset, confused and full of tears.”
Addison Jenkins had planned his funeral ahead of time, choosing the Boyd Funeral Home in Camden, New Jersey to handle the services.
In the complaint, the family alleges that the funeral director wasn’t present when they wanted to express their concerns and that a makeup artist from the funeral home allegedly reassured them the body was of Jenkins.
The complaint, however, says the family and funeral home employees “continued to disagree with each other as to whose body was in the casket.”
The family addressed the mix-up with an employee who then showed them text messages from the funeral director who “adamantly” stated, “the body was in fact Addison Jenkins.”
The lawsuit seeks an unspecified amount of damages for negligent infliction of emotional distress and mishandling of human remains.