‘It does look like some soil’: Family alleges funeral home returned baby’s urn without ashes inside

A couple in Georgia has sued a funeral home alleging that the owner misled them and instead of returning an urn with their late child’s ashes inside, they received a container full of what appeared to be soil and other debris.

The lawsuit filed in civil court in Henry County by parents Alexus Taylor and Jalen Matthews of Valdosta, Georgia, was first reported by Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB.

The couple’s child, Josiah, was born last October and then died in November. The family spent roughly a month at Emory University Hospital where the infant received various medical treatments after being born with Trisomy 18, a fatal, though rare, genetic condition.

A call to the Stan Henderson & Son Mortuary by Law&Crime went unanswered on Wednesday afternoon and a voicemail was not set up.

The couple and their attorney told WSB that they chose to have the child cremated because they wanted to “bring him home” after spending their time in a hospital knowing “most likely we (would) never get to bring him there,” Taylor said.

When they hired Stan Henderson & Son to complete their child’s cremation, they allege that it took more than four months before they received the urn meant to contain Josiah’s remains and when they finally opened it, they discovered it was filled with something else.

“It does look like some soil that’s in there mixed with some other things,” Taylor said.

The plaintiffs allege the funeral home defrauded them deliberately. When a WSB reporter visited the mortuary this week, he spoke to the owner, Stan Henderson, who steadfastly denied the allegations and called them lies. Henderson reportedly said he was willing to speak with attorneys present. It is unclear if he has yet obtained one.

An attorney for the couple did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.

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