‘It felt like a cruel joke’: Grieving family at open casket service find WRONG BODY dressed in great-grandfather’s favorite clothes after blunder by Texas funeral home
- Santana Funeral Directors were tasked with organizing the funeral for Natividad Torres Cordova back in May
- Employees accidentally put the wrong body in Cordova’s casket and brought it to his funeral service at a local church
- His daughters were left devastated when they peered into the coffin and saw the corpse of a stranger dressed in their father’s clothes
- Cordova’s body was eventually located and sent to the church for his funeral service, which was carried out two hours late
- When approached for comment, the funeral parlor stated: ‘Once and a while, there might be an issue with a family but we’re not at liberty to discuss that’
Two Houston women have been left distraught after they discovered a funeral parlor put the wrong body into their father’s open casket ahead of his burial.
Susana Montelongo and Maria Vasquez hired Santana Funeral Directors following the death of their father, Natividad Torres Cordova, back in May.
The sisters asked the funeral home to dress Cordova in his favorite Mexican soccer jersey for the open casket service.
However, the pair – along with the rest of their family – were stunned to discover the company’s shocking mix-up when the coffin arrived at the church with the wrong body inside.
‘To say our last goodbyes to our father, it was supposed to be perfect,’ Montelongo said in an interview Click2Houston.
The family of Natividad Torres Cordova were stunned to discover the company’s mix-up when the coffin arrived at the church with the wrong body inside
Natividad Torres Cordova (pictured) passed away in May following a battle with pancreatic cancer. His daughter hired Santana Funeral Directors to help with his funeral and burial
‘He gave us his all, so we wanted to give him everything, perfect.’
‘Instead of having good memories of a perfect funeral for our father, because he deserved the best, we are having a nightmare.’
Vasquez tearfully told the news network: ‘I went up to the casket to tell my dad “I love you” before anybody came in, and I was touching the wrong person, with my dad’s clothes. They ruined everything.’
The family confronted the funeral directors about the shocking mix-up, before another relative went back with them to parlor to retrieve the correct body.
Cordova’s body was eventually placed into a casket and sent back to the church for his funeral service, which was carried out two hours late.
However, his family says the body was not properly prepared for the ceremony and burial.
Another relative described the incident as ‘a cruel joke’.
Cordova’s daughters, Susana Montelongo (left) and Maria Vasquez (right), have been left heartbroken by the funeral home’s insensitive error
Employees accidentally put the wrong body in Cordova’s casket and brought it to his funeral service at a local church
Santana Funeral Directors boss Arnold Alanis says he ‘feels sorry’ for the Cordova clan.
‘Once and a while, there might be an issue with a family but we’re not at liberty to discuss that,’ he told Click2Houston, declining to go into details about the mix-up.
‘I feel sorry for them, they’re in grief right now with loss of a loved one. We strive real hard to make sure the family’s needs are met’.
The company offered the family a full refund.
‘The funeral director literally rushed out, left us there to handle everything on our own’: Maria Vasquez broke down as she discussed her father’s funeral
However, Vasquez says they did not go far enough.
She claims the employees did not offer any compassion or remorse for their insensitive error.
‘The funeral director literally rushed out, left us there to handle everything on our own,’ she alleges.
She told Click2Houston that they clan are now looking to find a lawyer to file a lawsuit.
Cordova (pictured with a granddaughter) was the patriarch of a large family. He passed away following a battle with pancreatic cancer