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A Mississippi family says the wrong person was put in their loved one's casket for a wake.
Georgia Robinson recalled showing up to a wake for her sister, Mary Jean Robinson, and immediately noticing that something was off.
“Once we got in there and signed the books and everything, we were walking down to view her body, and I knew something was kind of off. I could tell that it wasn’t her from far back,” Georgia told WLBT.
Georgia realized that the person lying in the casket was wearing the clothes and jewelry they bought for Mary Jean Robinson but the body wasn't her sister.
“I didn’t know who that was in the casket,” she said.
Georgia said the family informed the funeral home director of the mix-up.
“We’re telling him about the mistake, and he was very rude and very uncaring. He had an attitude with my son. (He) told us that we were going to have to pay for everything all over again,” she recalled.
According to Georgia, the funeral home eventually complied with some of their requests but kept the same casket for her sister.
“I told him not to put anything on my sister that was on that lady. He put the earrings on her anyway,“ she said.
Georgia said the situation left her family traumatized.
“I feel terrible. Just to think, if we had a closed casket, we would have ended up burying someone else’s loved one instead of ours,” she said.
James Stewart, one of the funeral home's directors, reportedly declined to confirm or deny whether the incident occurred.
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