‘Dressed the wrong body’: Grieving woman horrified to learn that funeral for her grandmother had a stranger in the casket, lawsuit says

Background: Donald Trimble Mortuary in Decatur, Ga. (Google Maps). Inset: Lucy Mae Johnson (Artic Obits).

A Georgia woman who organized funeral services for her late grandmother was told by the mortuary that the woman in the casket was not her grandmother.

Marva Lynch used the services of Donald Trimble Mortuary in Decatur after her beloved 95-year-old grandmother, Lucy Mae Johnson, passed away in July 2023. Lynch provided the mortuary with a burial outfit and a wig, but requested that the service have a closed casket. Once services were finished, someone from the mortuary informed Lynch that the body in the casket for her grandmother’s funeral was not actually that of her grandmother’s.

Now, Lynch is suing the funeral home.

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According to the lawsuit, which was obtained by local Fox affiliate WAGA, the mortuary reportedly admitted to Lynch after the funeral that they “dressed the wrong body in the wig and clothes” before placing the body in the casket.

Local ABC affiliate WSB also obtained the lawsuit, which was filed on May 1 in DeKalb County, and it stated that Lynch did briefly look into the casket before the funeral took place, but due to “previous trauma from her mother’s death,” she did not take a close look. Since the casket was closed for services, no one else was able to view who was really inside.