$12M award after funeral home lost woman’s cremated remains

MOBILE, Ala. – The daughter of an Alabama woman whose cremated remains were lost by a funeral home has been awarded $12 million.

Al.com reports the jury verdict was announced Monday after Pine Crest Funeral Home in Mobile lost the remains of Shelley Hood’s mother, Cecille Howard Taylor Gardner.

Although Hood’s mother died in 2011, court documents show, Hood first inquired about the remains in 2015 and was repeatedly told by management that they would be found. In 2016, the company’s general manager told Hood that the remains hadn’t been located and no record existed of their whereabouts. Hood filed a lawsuit in 2017.

The funeral home is owned by Service Corporation International, a leading provider of death care services and products in North America.