Family devastated after funeral home cremates the wrong body

Singapore—A funeral home cremated the wrong body much to the dismay of the grieving family.

A male staff member of Harmony Funeral Care was allegedly responsible for the mix-up. He mistakenly took the body of Mr. Kee Kin Tiong (82) from the embalmer and placed it in a closed casket without a viewing panel.

The body of Mr. Kee was then sent to a different family.

The late Mr. Kee was a Taoist, but his remains were cremated and sent off in a Christian funeral.

Mr. Ho, the late patriarch’s son-in-law, said that Taoist traditions require three days for the body to ‘rest’ before cremation.

“We weren’t even able to do that for my father-in-law, because of what happened,” he said as quoted in a report by the Straits Times.

The errant staff member explained that he even verified the body through “facial recognition” before he took it from the embalmer.

When the family asked to view the CCTV footage of the incident last Dec 29 to 30, the funeral home declined and reportedly said that they did not have it.

The family of Mr. Kee have since filed a police report and are awaiting the investigation results from the police and the National Environment Agency.

Harmony Funeral Care said they have suspended the staff member, but did not say whether they informed the Christian family of the mistake./TISG