New Jersey woman visited wrong grave for 31 years after father’s remains 'left in funeral home basement'

A New Jersey woman is suing the funeral home she hired to bury her father after making the horrifying discovery that he was instead left in a basement for 31 years .

Debbie Uraga, 69, was left devastated after learning that her father had never been buried and that his ashes had been in the business’s basement for three decades . Debbie has been visiting a grave at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown for 31 years since her father passed away in 1993.

However, the plot she believed her father and war veteran George Jonas was buried in alongside her mother, sister, and brother was in fact empty. She said: “I’d go see him on Father’s Day and his birthday – and even the VFW, because he was a vet, they would put the flag on the grave. It’s like we all thought he was there.”

Talking to local outlet News 12 Debbie explained how she was contacted by a man who works with an organization that gives proper burials to unclaimed veterans' remains in June when he told her he had found her father inside a box in the basement of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home. She said: “It hurts a lot, I thought he was there and it’s like it’s just unbelievable. My father should be in the cemetery with the rest of his family.”

ALL THE LATEST CRIME NEWS AND UPDATES

Debbie explained how in 1993 she was assured by the funeral home that her father was laid to rest with the rest of the family in their plot. “They just said they agreed that they would bury him,” she said.

She has since filed a lawsuit against Mount Olivet Cemetery and the John F. Pfleger Funeral Home. Meanwhile, according to WCBS John F. Pfleger Funeral Home have claimed that Jonas’ cremation and service was handled with the utmost care and they have insisted that they attempted to contact Debbie regarding her father’s remains several times.

A statement from a representative for the funeral home said: “All attempts by our funeral home to seek final disposition instructions from the Jonas family’s next of kin remained unanswered until we attempted to provide an honorable burial of this man’s cremated remains in our state’s veteran cemetery.”

However, Debbie has refuted the claim stating: “That’s false. Nobody ever contacted me." Debbie also admits that she lives only five minutes from the funeral home and if they had wanted to track her down it would not have been difficult.

She has since obtained her father's remains and the cremation certificate which is detailed with her name and address. She is now planning to lay her father to rest. She said: “Finally, after 31 years, maybe he could rest. You know, like they say, ‘Rest in peace.’ But how is he resting in peace if he is in the basement?”