Daughter claims mother’s body ‘misplaced’ in Memphis cemetery

MEMPHIS, Tenn. ( WREG ) — A daughter is looking for answers, claiming her mother’s remains were misplaced at a Tennessee cemetery.

Georleshia Minter says her world turned upside down when her mother Marie Minter-Boyd died last November. She says that in December, her mother was buried at New Park Cemetery in Memphis. After months of visiting her mother’s gravesite, she noticed something was off about the burial site.

“At first it was just a substantial difference from where I had been coming for the previous months,” she said.

Minter says she brought her concerns to management but never heard back.

While celebrating her mother’s birthday, she says other family members also noticed that her mother’s supposed resting spot was not where they buried her.

“We looked back at videos and pictures that we had taken from December 2, the day that we laid my mother to rest, and noticed that something in fact was not right,” Minter said.

She says they’ve spoken to management but haven’t gotten any concrete answers as to why her mother’s remains are in a different location.

“They have no idea where or how she was lost, but they do not know where she is,” she said.

WREG reached out to general manager Jeff Roberts who says they have double-checked their records and found no errors or discrepancies on their part.

“The family has no headstone on the grave and perhaps that is what led to their misunderstanding,” said Roberts.

Minter says even though her mother didn’t have an official headstone, she placed a marker on her mother’s gravesite to identify it. She says the marker has since been moved.

“To be missing in life and to be missing in death is heartbreaking,” she said. “If nothing else is done, my mom must be found.”

This is not the first time the cemetery has been accused of misplacing the remains of someone’s loved one. In May, WREG spoke to another family who had a similar story.

In that case, the Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance opened an investigation and found no evidence to suggest the complainant’s mother had been moved.

However, state investigators found numerous maintenance issues, trash strewn about the cemetery grounds, and numerous headstones that had fallen over. The cemetery was ordered to pay a fine of almost $3,000.

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