The manager of a funeral home said they are not responsible for the family of a Marine veteran who died receiving his brain in a box.
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The family is suing two funeral homes, including one in Marietta.
When Timothy Garlington passed away nearly two years ago, his family hired Southern Cremations and Funerals to send his body to his hometown of Philadelphia.
They hired Nix and Nix Funeral Homes in Philadelphia to handle the remains and arrangements.
Julian Nix told Channel 2 Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell that when he received a box along with Garlington’s personal belongings, he knew it wasn’t on the list Southern Cremations and Funerals gave him before they sent the body.
He says he didn’t say anything because he assumed it was just a normal box.
Days after the family picked up Garlington’s personal belongings from Nix and Nix Funeral Home, they discovered a strong odor coming from this box.
“I got in my car, and I smelled death,” said Lawrence Butler, his father.
“After questioning what that was with Southern Cremation, they were informed that by some accident somehow it was their son’s brain,” said Chris Stewart, an attorney representing the family.
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The family is suing both funeral homes, but only one spoke about what happened.
“The family brought the brain back to us, and we immediately took it to the medical examiner because we did not know that box contained brain matter,” Nix said.
“I felt real bad, and we apologized,” he added.
Nix said they emailed back and forth with Southern Cremations, and the box was never mentioned.
“They messed up by sending brains in a box,” he said. “If you call and ask any funeral home, they would never do something like that.”
Nix says the state of Pennsylvania cleared him of any wrongdoing.
“What we did, we did by the book,” he said.
Southern cremations and Funerals declined to comment when contacted.
The Pennsylvania State Board of Funeral Directors would neither confirm nor deny conduct an investigation.
The Funeral Board here in Georgia did investigate, but because of state law would not reveal its findings.
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