A woman from New Jersey is suing the funeral home responsible for burying her father’s remains after discovering that his ashes had been sitting in the basement for three decades.
Debbie Uraga, 69, and her family had been unknowingly visiting an empty gravesite at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown for 31 years since her father died in 1993, she told News 12.
Since 1993, Uraga believed that her father, George Jonas, a military veteran, was buried alongside her mother, sister, and brother in the family’s plot.
“I’d go see him on Father’s Day and his birthday, and even the VFW, because he was a vet, would put the flag on the grave. We all thought he was there,” Uraga told the local outlet.
In June 2024, she was contacted by a man from an organization that retrieves unclaimed veterans’ remains to give them proper burials. The man shockingly informed her that he had found her father’s remains inside a box in the basement of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home, which was devastating news for Uraga.
“It hurts a lot,” she said. “I thought he was there, and it’s just unbelievable. My father should be in the cemetery with the rest of his family.”
“They just said they agreed that they would bury him,” she added.
The family has now filed a lawsuit against Mount Olivet Cemetery and the John F. Pfleger Funeral Home to hold them accountable.
The owner of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home claims that Jonas’ cremation and services were handled with the utmost care and that they had tried contacting Uraga about the status of her father’s remains numerous times, according to WCBS.
“All attempts by our funeral home to seek final disposition instructions from the Jonas family’s next of kin remained unanswered until we attempted to provide an honorable burial of this man’s cremated remains in our state’s veteran cemetery,” a funeral home representative said in a statement to the station.
However, Uraga called their claims ‘false.’ “That’s false. Nobody ever contacted me,” she retorted.
Uraga now has the box with her father’s remains, as well as the cremation certificate that bears her name and address. She hopes that now, with her father’s remains in her possession, he can finally be laid to rest properly.
“Finally, after 31 years, maybe he can rest,” Uraga told News 12. “You know, like they say, ‘Rest in peace.’ But how can he rest in peace if he’s in the basement?”
