Woman: Father’s ashes at funeral home 25 years, not in crypt

LYNDHURST, Ohio – A woman who thought her father’s ashes were interred in his crypt in Ohio 25 years ago has learned that they were at a funeral home instead.

Maryann Taraska says someone else’s ashes were in her father Donald Hopeck’s crypt at a Chardon (SHAHR’-dihn) cemetery.

Taraska tells WKYC-TV in Cleveland that Schulte and Mahon-Murphy funeral home in Lyndhurst called to tell her that her father’s remains were found in a box in the funeral home’s archives.

Jim Murphy, one of the funeral home’s directors, tells the television station that they weren’t responsible for the mix-up. Murphy’s attorney issued a statement on Murphy’s behalf, saying “I feel for the family involved.”

The statement also says the funeral home was under different ownership when Taraska’s father died.

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Information from: WKYC-TV, http://www.wkyc.com