A Detroit funeral home is under police investigation after a family says staff cremated their mother by mistake and then presented another woman’s body, dressed in their mother’s clothes and wig, at her viewing.
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Kimberlly Kaye Moore, 61, died earlier this month. Her five children were preparing to say goodbye at Hutchinson Funeral Home on East 7 Mile Road ahead of her funeral, which was set for Saturday. The family planned to hold the viewing and service first and cremate her afterward so everyone could see her one final time.
On Friday, Moore’s daughter, Bianca Robinson, went to the funeral home to do her mother’s nails and lashes. She said a mortuary worker asked her whether the body in front of them was her mom, a question she felt the staff should have been able to answer themselves.
Robinson knew right away. Her mother had a mole on her toe. The woman in front of her did not. “I said this is not my mama, sir,” Robinson recalled, adding that the worker apologized.
The body had been fully prepared for the Moore family’s viewing. Relatives say the woman was wearing their mother’s dress, their mother’s wig, and makeup done for their mother. “This woman got on my momma’s dress, wig, everything,” one family member said.
When the family demanded to know where Moore was, the answers kept changing. One relative said they were told she was upstairs, moments after being told the funeral home did not have her. Robinson said an employee eventually explained that two women had come in around the same time as her mother and that Moore must have been cremated shortly after she arrived.
The explanation the family says they got from the Detroit funeral home came down to a toe tag. Christopher Moore, a relative, said staff told them they believe the tag got wet and fell off, which is how his loved one’s body was confused with someone else’s.
Tensions rose as more relatives arrived at the Detroit funeral home. Police came to keep the peace, the funeral home locked its doors, and family members protested outside, accusing staff of trying to cover up the mistake by passing off another woman as their mother.
For the Moore family, the loss is now double. They did not get a viewing. They did not get to say goodbye. They say they have not even received ashes. “We don’t have a viewing. What do we have? We don’t even have her ashes!” Robinson said.
After initially declining to comment, Hutchinson Funeral Home brought in a public relations firm and released a statement apologizing to the family. The Detroit funeral home said it was heartbroken over what the Moores experienced, that it has launched an internal review to find out exactly what happened, and that it will act on the findings. It also asked the public to respect the family’s privacy and said it would share more when it can.
The funeral home has not publicly confirmed that Moore was cremated. That account comes from what the family says staff told them, and Detroit police are investigating.
There is another grieving family in this story. The woman placed in Moore’s casket has not been publicly identified, and the Moores say they are trying to reach her relatives, who may not know how their own loved one was handled.
Moore’s children are still deciding how to move forward with services for their mother.
