MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC-TV) - It started with one family realizing they received the wrong urn filled with the cremated remains of someone else. Now, it is being discovered that at least three families are involved in this crematory mix-up.
Two families are grieving already. And now they worry that there will be more.
Sherita Smith loved her uncle.
"He meant the world to me," she said. "He walked me to school. He was there when I learned to ride a bike. He took me for walks and just listened to me even when I was young and I had really nothing to say."
Smith said her uncle, James Gerald, was the father she never had.
Gerald died in October 2009 at just 44 years old. His body was cremated.
Smith has kept these ashes near and dear ever since.
"Whenever we wanted to feel close to him or we needed to talk to him we would just go to that box and just let it all pour out," she said. "And it turns out that's not even him."
Dinetta Hodges died in November 2009. Her body was also cremated.
On Thursday, her daughter, Kimberly Noel, discovered that the ashes she held near and dear... were not her mother's at all.
When she opened the urn for the first time, Noel found an I.D. tag inside with James Gerald's name on it.
"And I was like, 'What? You gotta be kidding me.' Like, really?" said Smith.
J E Herndon Funeral Home handled both families' services.
The Tennessee Crematory says its records show the funeral home delivered Hodges' body on January 4, 2010. That is the same day Kimberly Noel collected Gerald's ashes.
But Smith says the funeral home had her family pick up an urn and ashes in December 2009.
"It's like losing my uncle all over again. Because in a way, we did lose him all over again. We don't have him now," said Smith.
Noel, a complete stranger, does have him.
But who has her mom?
Smith has someone else's cremated remains.
"Who knows who this person is? They mean something to somebody," she said. "Hopefully it's not that many people that's involved because this is some heartbreaking stuff."
She continued, "It may be a never ending cycle. Where would it stop?"
The crematory says every urn is supposed to have I.D. tag and disc.
Smith's had neither.
The funeral home declined comment while it investigates what happened.
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