Children of wrongfully cremated woman sue Eastlake Mortuary in Phoenix

The four children of Joann Stephens, an 86-year-old woman who died in Nov. 2022 after battling with dementia, filed a lawsuit against Eastlake Mortuary in Phoenix after the mortuary wrongfully cremated Stephens' body despite agreeing to embalm her remains for an open-casket funeral and burial, a final wish for the devout Chrisitan.

On Thursday, during a news conference, Jason Glenn, one of the four siblings, and his lawyer announced the lawsuit against the mortuary, citing negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Stephens' four children were excited to honor their mother's memory by working with Eastlake Mortuary in Phoenix to give her the open-casket funeral service she had always wanted. Knowing how much it meant to his mother, Jason Glenn, who lives in Phoenix, made plans with the mortuary prior to her death to ensure they could seamlessly take her remains immediately after her passing.

The plans to have the Eastlake Mortuary — well-known for its funeral services among Phoenix Black community members — prepare Stephens' body for viewing, do her hair and makeup, dress her in her final resting gown and provide a casket were locked into place early, Glenn said. A contract was drafted before she died so that when the time came, all her children had to do in order to give their mother the memorial service she had always wanted, was confirm the final details.

That's why when she passed away on Nov. 15, 2022, after garnering a reputation at her assisted living home for her sense of humor and loving personality, Glenn took her hand after the hospice nurse called Eastlake Mortuary to pick up her body, and promised her they would see each other one last time once she was "all dolled up."

"She loved her lipstick," Glenn said. "I said 'mom, we’re gonna get your lipstick, makeup, beautiful gown and you’re going to look beautiful and get that funeral you always told us you wanted.”

'Accidental' cremation leads to lawsuit

Two days after her death, on Nov. 17, Glenn and his three siblings met with representatives at Eastlake Mortuary to finalize the funeral arrangements. "We were so excited when we left," Glenn said, having sent a reference picture of Stephens to a worker at the funeral home who was going to write her obituary.

Two hours later, they received the call that would launch them into a lawsuit for breach of contract, negligence, negligent infliction of emotional distress and intentional infliction of emotional distress. A representative asked the siblings to come back to the funeral home.

"'We regret to have to inform you that your mom was cremated last night,'" Glenn said a remorseful funeral home representative told the siblings, explaining that their mother had been confused with another body at the crematorium and was wrongfully cremated the night before.

The funeral home representative told the siblings there would be no memorial service as planned because of the accidental cremation, Glenn said.

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Eastlake Mortuary didn't immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday afternoon.

The news was devastating. Stephens was a devout Christian who raised her children that way and cremation went against her beliefs. He recalled his mom always joking with them about what she wanted after she passed.

"She would always say, even in her dementia state, that ‘you’re not going to burn me up, I’ve been good all my life,'" Glenn said. “Her last wish was that she wanted a beautiful funeral."

Now, Stephens' final wish would not become a reality. "Now they have their ashes, what do we do with that? That was not the intent. The intent was a beautiful funeral. It was just a mixed bag of emotions when that initially happened," Glenn said.

In the week that followed, Glenn and his three siblings put together a memorial service for Stephens at a local Marriott, blowing up a picture of their mom to put on display. They did not have their mother's ashes at the time and did not receive them for several weeks, waiting for Eastlake to call them for pickup.

"I hadn’t heard from them so I finally called, and they said, ‘yeah you can come pick her ashes up anytime,'" Glenn said.

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He went to pick up his mother's ashes, which had been put in an urn. The ashes had no identifications, which caused Glenn to wonder if they were even the correct ashes since the remains had previously been mixed up by the funeral home.

"How do we know?" Glenn said. "I don’t have any tags or anything that say these are her ashes, there’s just so many unanswered things here, so many checks and balances that seem to not have happened between the funeral home and the crematorium.”

That concern was echoed by Randall Stone, a managing attorney at Lento Law Group, the firm representing Glenn and his three siblings in the lawsuit filed on Wednesday against Eastlake Mortuary.

"I’ve never had a case like this before. It shouldn’t just be rare, it should be never," Stone said in a Thursday press conference. "Once we looked at the contract and looked at everything that happened it was a shock to us. How could this happen?"

Lawsuit claims breach of contract, negligence

Stephens' children filed a lawsuit against Eastlake Mortuary on Monday, citing breach of contract, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among others.

The lawsuit claims the mortuary tried to cover up its error and misrepresented when Stephens was cremated and what truly happened to her remains.

"No proof or verification of the identity of the cremains were ever provided to the family by the Defendants," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit further alleges that Eastlake Mortuary was negligent in its screening, hiring and management of roughly 15 employees, whom it described as being "unfit and incompetent."

"The above-described conduct of Defendants was despicable and was perpetrated with malice, oppression and/or reckless disregard for the rights and wellbeing of Plaintiffs," the lawsuit claims.

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The lawsuit seeks monetary damages from Eastlake Mortuary along with attorneys fees and any other relief the court finds suitable.

Glenn told reporters that his mother was a loving person who would have forgiven the situation and he has no doubt that her soul is at eternal peace, but finding closure for the family is still hard.

"I would not wish that on anyone that lost a loved one to be told that they were cremated when that was not in the picture," said Glenn.

Glenn and his siblings hope that by telling their story and taking legal action, they can prevent something similar from happening to other families who are grieving the loss of a loved one.

"What we’re trying to do is simply give the family closure and to make sure this never happens to any other family," said Stone. The lawsuit will move into the discovery process in the coming months, allowing for depositions that will center on questions of what happened and how. The suit will eventually come to a trial unless Eastlake chooses to settle.

Stephens' urn currently sits atop a shelf in Glenn's wife's she-shed, a nickname for her personal living room. "She’s right there with the best of everything we have," Glenn told reporters with a smile.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Family of wrongfully cremated woman sue Eastlake Mortuary in Phoenix