Local Family: Funeral Home Lost Mother, Father Remains SOUTH HADLEY, Mass (WGGB) — An embattled local funeral home facing a state investigation after allegedly losing the remains of a deceased husband and wife. Ryder Funeral home in South Hadley was shut down by the state in May after investigators reported finding deplorable conditions, including decomposing bodies. Now one family is left with a double heartache. When Lucille White passed away two years ago, some of her cremated remains were put aside so her longtime husband, decorated Korean War veteran, Lincoln White Sr., could honor one thing when he passed away May 4th, 2014. “He continually promised that we are going to be together again, our cremated remains will be together and buried together, but that didn’t happen,” family attorney Jeffrey Poindexter said. When the white’s children showed up to Ryder Funeral Home for Lincoln’s wake May 9th: “They noticed that the container that the remains were in- or the bag that mom’s cremated remains were in, were on the floor in the back of the funeral home,” Poindexter said. And not mixed into Lincoln’s urn as Ryder Funeral Home owner, Will Ryder, had promised. Poindexter says the family had to find their own easels for flowers and photos in a mess at the facility. “That was the beginning of an ongoing nightmare for the family,” Pointdexter said. Cremation certificates later proved Lincoln’s remains were never in the urn to begin with. He was cremated May 8th but his remains weren’t picked up until May 12th, two days after the family thought he was buried. In this suit, Poindexter alleges Jay Czelusniak of Czelusniak Funeral Home, trying to help out after Ryder went under, exhumed Lincoln’s grave without permission on June 26th. “They asked are these your mother’s remains?” Poindexter says Czelusniak and others asked the White’s children. “They’re like ‘that’s not the container that our mother was in, so no those are not the remains.’ So dad had been lost and mom had been lost.” Considering all their parents wanted was to rest eternally here in peace here at the cemetery, the suit says the white’s children are now suffering emotional distress. “The family feels one they broke a promise to their parents and two they don’t have any closure, I mean they are never going to have a grave to go to where the remains are,” Poindexter said. The White’s children were allegedly told it’s unlikely they’ll ever find the correct remains. Will Ryder is not returning phone calls, but his attorney Paul Boudreau confirms he has not been well and is seeking assistance. His funeral home will be sold, ABC40 has learned, to another operator. Boudreau says money from that will be first used to make good on refunding pre-arranged funerals. However, he adds that he has no knowledge of the accusations made in the White’s case. Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley has sued Ryder for improperly handling bodies and misappropriating consumer deposits. A preliminary injunction, barring destruction of materials, was issued by the court last week.
Posted on: Thu, 25 Sep 2014 01:54:48 +0000
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