N.J. woman says father’s remains have been sitting in funeral home for 31 years

WCBS, MICHAEL SHAW, DEBBIE URAGA, CNN

By Christine Sloan

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    GARWOOD, New Jersey (WCBS) — A woman has filed a lawsuit against a New Jersey funeral home after she said she discovered the remains of her father were never buried.

“For 31 years, I assumed my father was buried at the cemetery”
Debbie Uraga said it hurts to think her father’s cremated remains sat inside John F. Pfleger Funeral Home in Middletown for 31 years.

“How did he rest in peace for 31 years if he’s treated like nothing down basement?” she said.

Uraga’s father, George Jonas – a veteran, died in 1993.

She lost her mother, sister and brother before her father’s death. They’re all buried at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown. That’s where she thought her father was, too, in the family plot.

“For 31 years, I assumed my father was buried at the cemetery, and I would go there Father’s Day, birthday and visit him,” Uraga said.

But the 69-year-old says in June, a man with an organization that retrieves unclaimed veteran’s remains to give them proper burials contacted her on social media, informing her that her dad’s remains were still in a box at the funeral home.

“Now it’s like reliving everything,” Uraga said.

Funeral home says they tried to contact family

Uraga said in 1993, the funeral home promised her that her father would rest in the cemetery with her family.

“They just said they agreed that they would bury him,” she said.

The owner of the funeral home said Jonas’ cremation and services were handled with the utmost care, adding they tried to contact Uraga numerous times but that “all attempts by our funeral home to seek final disposition instructions from the Jonas family 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.”

Uraga responded to the statement, saying, “That’s false. Nobody ever contacted me.”

Uraga now has the box with her father’s remains as well as the cremation certificate that she says has her name and address, showing it wasn’t hard to find her since she lived five minutes from the funeral home.

“I’m just glad that I’m here to make sure now I’ll get him where he should be to rest in peace,” Uraga said.

The cemetery, which was also mentioned in the lawsuit, had no official comment, but they gave CBS New York a current sheet with burial costs that also specifies all fees have to be paid in full before interments.

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