A Texas family is seeking monetary relief over $1 million after a Houston mortuary service allegedly dropped their deceased relative’s remains, resulting in visible denting observed during the relative’s wake.
According to a lawsuit obtained by the Daily Beast, Juan Mejia died June 14, 2021 at his daughter’s second-floor condo unit located in Houston. His family, including his son, William, contacted Barrera Mortuary of Eagle Pass, Texas, to provide funeral services and remove the remains from the residence. That mortuary notified them that Twinwood Mortuary would remove the remains.
Twinwood was founded in 2012, said its website. Two employees from the mortuary arrived to pick up Juan Mejia’s remains on the evening of June 14.
“Plaintiff noted that the employees appeared young and were visibly hesitant in their decision making, to which he responded by offering his assistance to help transport Juan Mejia’s body down the staircase; however, the employees did not accept his assistance,” said the lawsuit. “Plaintiff instructed the employees that they should request more assistance from coworkers; however, the two employees stated they did not need to and did not seek help.”
After closing the door to the condo, William Mejia heard thumps.
He then found the employees on the ground and his father’s remains exposed from the torso up, visible to the public.
“Plaintiff William Mejia rushed down the stairs after seeing his deceased father’s body lying on the cement sidewalk of the public courtyard,” the lawsuit said. “Plaintiff William Mejia frantically covered his father’s body by hugging it in an attempt to shield him from being viewed by neighbors.”
He then called for the Twinwood employees to help him lift the stretcher and get his father covered and back on it. In the process, the lawsuit said his arm was caught underneath the stretcher, and that he shouted for the employees to help raise the stretcher. William Mejia has been left with “pain in his arm and back arising from the incident,” the suit said.
While the state of Texas requires a licensed funeral director to be present for the removal of a deceased body from a residence Mejia family does not believe the employees were licensed funeral directors.
After the incident, the suit alleged that “one employee apologized for the situation and agreed that the situation should not have happened the way it did.”
However, when Yeager Barrera funeral home responded to the family’s complaint about the incident, the Mejias were “told that the employees informed their employer, Defendant Twinwood Mortuary, that the incident did not occur as Plaintiff William Mejia explained.”
When they saw Juan Meija during his open casket wake on June 18, the family “observed denting and bruising on Juan Mejia’s head from being dropped on the ground by the employees,” said the suit.
Plaintiffs suffered mental, emotional and physical trauma from the incident, the suit said. According to the Daily Beast, attorneys representing the Mejia family were in depositions on Monday and not available for comment. Owners of Twinwood Mortuary were also unavailable for comment.
Last year, KRLD’s “Something Offbeat” podcast covered another shocking case related to human remains – the case of a donated body that showed up in a public autopsy.