Michigan Widow Sues Funeral Home Over Husband’s Ashes

HOLLY, Mich. — An 85-year-old Michigan widow is suing a funeral home after learning the ashes of her late husband, an Air Force veteran, had allegedly been stored for nearly three decades without her knowledge.

For years, Daisy Marshall believed the ashes of her husband, Charles, were safe in an urn displayed in her home. But in 2022, while making prearrangements at Great Lakes National Cemetery, she discovered shocking news: someone had already been interred under her husband’s ID number, and ashes bearing his name were delivered to the cemetery in December 2018.

“Where had those ashes been for all that time and whose ashes did I have?” Marshall asked.

The discovery raised unsettling questions for the mother and grandmother, who thought she had received her husband’s full remains during his memorial service in 1991, conducted by Wilson-Akins Funeral Homes. She is now pursuing a lawsuit against the funeral home, claiming mishandling of her husband’s cremains.

The funeral home, however, disputes her allegations. An attorney representing the business says Marshall requested only a portion of her husband’s ashes in 1991 and agreed for the rest to be stored at the facility until she picked them up. According to the attorney, those ashes remained there for 27 years.

Marshall flatly denies that account.

“That conversation never happened. It never happened,” she said. “Even if the conversation had taken place, I was supposed to be given, according to what I’ve read, some written communication to pick those ashes up.”

In 2018, the state ordered the funeral home to provide a proper final disposition for all unclaimed cremains, leading to the delivery of the ashes to Great Lakes National Cemetery. Marshall only learned of this four years later, leaving her in disbelief.

“Three other veterans’ ashes were interred there—or stored there, I should say. Two of those veterans had been there over 31 years and one, over 10 years,” she said.

The state’s Mortuary Science Unit investigated the matter and ultimately cleared the funeral home of wrongdoing. Still, Marshall insists the experience has been devastating, and she hopes her lawsuit will prevent other families from facing similar confusion and heartache.