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Lawsuits over a mistaken cremation and a body-swap coverup ended with a judge imposing a six-figure judgment against a local funeral home.
The families of Roland Johnson and Samuel Roy sued Wilmington’s Bell Funeral Home in 2024, claiming the business accidentally sent Johnson for cremation and then tried to cover the mistake up by presenting Roy’s body to Johnson’s family ahead of a funeral service.
The lawsuits were officially closed earlier this summer after a judge assigned damages of $150,000 to each family, according to court filings. Attorneys representing the two families did not respond to a request for comment.
The funeral home denied the allegations in court filings and stopped litigating the case mid-stream. They also did not respond to a request for comment.
In 2024, Delaware Online/The News Journal interviewed Johnson’s family and covered the dispute.
“It was just so devastating and wild and crazy,” said Darla Chase, Johnson’s daughter, in a 2024 interview.
What happened?
Roland Johnson died in January 2024 at the age of 93. He lived in Wilmington and worked for the DuPont Co. where he rose from a dishwasher to executive chef.
His intentions were to be buried along with his wife of 60 years. After he died, the family planned a memorial service at a local church, as well as a repass for hundreds to pay their respects on the Wilmington Riverfront.
The day before, Chase went to the funeral home for what was described as a final inspection. She said she was shocked when she saw the body presented by the funeral home.
“When I walked up closer, I said, ‘Wait a minute; that is not my dad,” she said in an interview at her Wilmington home.
That began a saga that included staff insisting she was wrong, the family turning to the internet to discover the true identity of the imposter body, and proving the swap through the absence of a tattoo that was inked on the real Johnson’s wrist.
The body presented to them was actually the body of Samuel Roy, who was supposed to have been cremated, according to court filings.
Roy’s family discovered the swap after seeing a social media post by one of Johnson’s family members about the ordeal. Roy’s family also paid for a DNA test to confirm the body presented to Johnson’s family was in fact Roy.
Roy’s family also sued, claiming the funeral home had shaved off Roy’s beard, placed him in the casket and even made programs for Johnson’s funeral featuring Roy’s face. Their lawsuit claims officials for the funeral home admitted they had made a mistake.
Litigation ends with judgment
The funeral home eventually acknowledged that Johnson had been cremated, while also asking the family to sign a consent form after the fact, according to the lawsuit. With the help of an attorney, they eventually were able to retrieve Johnson’s ashes.
They were laid to rest in a casket buried at the grave reserved for him and his late wife. An urn containing his ashes and the blue suit Chase hoped he should be buried in were inside the casket.
Chase’s family also sued a separate funeral service that took possession of Johnson’s body immediately after his death and claimed the service didn’t properly tag the body. They also sued a crematorium and accused them of failing to properly ensure the identity.
The lawyer representing Bell quit midway through the case, and the funeral home never hired another attorney, according to court filings. Eventually, the presiding judge held them in default and conducted hearings to put a price on the families’ suffering.
A $150,000 award for Johnson’s family was offset by $5,000 from a separate funeral services company, as well as $1,000 by a crematorium the family sued. Johnson’s family eventually dismissed the litigation against those defendants.
The lawsuit by Roy’s family followed a similar path, but sought damages against Bell only. After a similar damages hearing, a judge assigned $150,000 in damages to Roy’s family.
In her 2024 interview, Chase said the situation took away something money can’t buy.
“I really wanted to see my dad, you know, at the funeral,” Chase said. “I wanted to have a last viewing of my dad and I wasn’t able to do that. None of us was.”
Contact Xerxes Wilson at (302) 324-2787 or xwilson@delawareonline.com.