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Grieving Families Got Kitty Litter In Urns, Police Say
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Anarkoid replied on Thu Dec 20, 2007 @ 7:56am |
 Coolness: 193560 | MARK HUME
From Thursday's Globe and Mail * E-mail Mark Hume * | Read Bio * | Latest Columns December 20, 2007 at 4:48 AM EST VANCOUVER — Some British Columbia families were allegedly given funeral urns that contained kitty litter, not the cremated remains of their loved ones, and some unwittingly buried or kept on their mantles the ashes of strangers. Now the former owner and director of the Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service has been charged with 34 Criminal Code counts of defrauding families in relation to cremation services. He also faces two counts of neglect of duty in relation to the care of human remains, and two counts of offering an indignity to human remains. RCMP Constable Julie Rattee, of the Kelowna and Southeast District, said yesterday the charges of indignity to human remains relate to the handling of bodies, not ashes. She declined to elaborate, but members of some of the families that dealt with Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service say they were told bodies had been found in a freezer after the funeral home closed. In a statement, Constable Rattee said Princeton RCMP began in 2006 to investigate complaints regarding the funeral home, in the small mining community of Princeton, midway between Vancouver and Penticton. The business had closed in late 2005, leaving 56 urns of cremated remains with another local funeral home. But when the new funeral home operators began calling families to ask them to pick up the urns, they found most people already had urns that they thought contained the ashes of their loved ones. "Once families were contacted in March, 2006, it was discovered that they had the incorrect remains. These family members are alleged to have received the incorrect cremated remains ... of their deceased loved ones from the funeral home director," Constable Rattee said. Most of the 56 urns were eventually placed with the proper families. But not all the urns that were returned could be replaced with urns containing the correct remains. "Some families, once they had turned in the incorrect cremains, have yet to receive the proper ones, as their urns have not been located to date," Constable Rattee said. Glen Ortwein and his wife, Sherri, for four years kept on their mantle an urn they thought held the ashes of their 19-year-old son, Christopher, who died in a car crash. But Mr. Ortwein said yesterday that when the investigation at Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service got under way, they began to wonder whether the urn they had touched and spoken to on a daily basis really held their son's ashes. "I had a bad feeling," he said. "I opened it up and it contained this lumpy material." He called a crematorium and was told that human ashes should be a fine powder, not the coarse, lumpy material he was looking at. Some families in Princeton have been told they were given urns containing kitty litter, but Mr. Ortwein never did find out what it was he'd had on his mantle all those years. But he knows it wasn't his son, because records show Christopher's body was actually cremated on May 17th, more than a week later than he'd been told. "I got the ashes on the ninth of May," Mr. Ortwein said. His son's ashes were never found. "We never got our boy back," he said. "I would like to ask [the funeral home director], 'Where is our boy? Did you put him somewhere?' " One of the first people in town to raise concerns about Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service was Babs Williams, who buried what she thought to be the ashes of her late husband, Edward, in Princeton Cemetery. Then she got a call from the new funeral home, asking her what they would like her to do with his ashes. Ms. Williams could not be reached yesterday but her son, Jasonn Sperling, said it was disturbing for the family to learn they had held an emotional funeral service for a stranger, while Ed's remains had sat neglected for years on a funeral-home shelf. "It was a weird situation. ... It was quite a shock," he said. The family exhumed the first set of ashes, and police were able to locate Ed's actual cremated remains at the funeral home. The cremated human remains first given to Ms. Williams were not identified. Mr. Sperling said he'd like to know how long the funeral home operated the way it did. Among the cremated remains found by police at Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service was one that dated back to 1953 and several from the 1970s and 80s. Police yesterday did not name the individual charged, saying his identity will be released when he makes his first court appearance, in Princeton, on Jan. 10. The former owner and operator of the Princeton-Similkameen Funeral Service is Fred Netherton, who has since moved from the area. He could not be located for comment. ------------------------------ [ www.theglobeandmail.com ] |
| I'm feeling optimistic right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope replied on Fri Dec 21, 2007 @ 9:31am |
 Coolness: 202110 | Once you are dead, you are dead. I never saw the big deal with ashes and all that. |
| I'm feeling gangsta right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Screwhead replied on Fri Dec 21, 2007 @ 11:12am |
 Coolness: 686475 | It's people's attatchment to material things IMO. They don't really realize that the body/ashes are really just useless and take up space, and that the real thing you need to remember the deceased is a memory. Memories will last you a lot longer than a little jar filled with ash. |
| I'm feeling internet withdrawl right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» moondancer replied on Fri Dec 21, 2007 @ 12:42pm |
 Coolness: 93150 | I'm sure they do. Why do people keep christmas cards and random stupid gifts? Isn't the memory of the christmas card enough? People don't need the christmas card but they don't wanna throw it out either. You don't keep it so much to remember it as you do because it just wouldn't feel right not to and because everytime you look at it you think of that person and how much you appreciate them. If you made a copy of that christmas card which you previously threw out it just wouldn't be the same. It's not necessarily that they needed it in the first place but they were deceived into believing they had it whether or not they ever wanted it and it's impossible in that case that they wouldn't feel either connected with that object or disturbed about the lack of connection with it. You don't have to understand just respect others feelings. It's really disrespectful for anyone to allow another to have those kind of feelings just because.. wait a minute, what was his use in keeping their real ashes? |
| I'm feeling bored right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Shindy replied on Fri Dec 21, 2007 @ 12:45pm |
 Coolness: 172725 | Except if you are Keith Richard... :p |
| I'm feeling batarnac right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Trey replied on Fri Dec 21, 2007 @ 5:12pm |
 Coolness: 103650 | When i die, please put my ashes in the shogun shells and blast the zombie that kill me. |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» Anarkoid replied on Mon Dec 24, 2007 @ 10:22am |
| Coolness: 193560 | Originally Posted By TREY
When i die, please put my ashes in the shogun shells and blast the zombie that kill me. if a zombie kills you?!?, well there will be good chance that you will become a zombie yourself.... |
| I'm feeling optimistic right now.. | |
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» DrGonzo replied on Mon Dec 24, 2007 @ 10:46am |
 Coolness: 266840 | "I would like to ask [the funeral home director], 'Where is our boy? Did you put him somewhere?' "
I laughed so hard. |
| I'm feeling love in a speaker right now.. | |
Grieving Families Got Kitty Litter In Urns, Police Say
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