Woman was cremated by accident, lawsuit says. Now family can’t trust if ashes are hers
After a woman’s parents dropped off clothes at a Las Vegas funeral home for her open casket funeral, they were called to return for an “emergency,” according to a new lawsuit.
Joaquin and Maria Ruacho were ushered into a private room, where Davis Funeral Homes and Memorial Park employees told them their daughter, Loren Chavez, was “accidentally” cremated on Oct. 4, a complaint filed Aug. 7 in district court in Clark County, Nevada, says.
Cremation is against the family’s religious beliefs, as they believe the “body must be honored by burial in its original form” so it can “be resurrected and live in the afterlife,” family attorney Christian Morris told McClatchy News on Aug. 10.
Now, the family can’t even trust if the ashes they were given are Loren’s ashes, Morris said.
Chavez was to be buried on Oct. 7, less than a month after she died as a result of domestic violence on Sept. 17, according to the complaint. She was killed by her husband, who died by suicide the same day in Las Vegas, officials told the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
“Loren was killed twice,” her family said in a statement provided to McClatchy News by Morris.
“Once by the man who was supposed to love and care for her, and the second time by a business that treated Loren like just another body to carelessly process while focused on their bottom line,” Morris said.
Chavez’s family is suing the Davis Funeral Homes and Memorial Park on several causes of action, including negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
They are seeking more than $15,000 in damages, the complaint shows.
McClatchy News contacted the funeral home for comment on Aug. 10 and didn’t receive an immediate response.
In a statement to the LA Times, Mike Wilfong, the funeral home’s general manager, said an “unfortunate event occurred” in regard to Chavez’s cremation.
“We have spoken to the family involved and are working diligently to try to resolve the issue,” Wilfong told the newspaper.
‘Unforgivable’
The lawsuit accuses the funeral home of failing to correctly identify and keep track of Chavez’s body, with such negligence resulting in her wrongful cremation.
“This is something that should never happen and there are so many checks and balances in place to prevent it from occurring; its unfathomable that this is just an ‘accident’ like they told her parents,” according to Morris, who called what happened “unforgivable.”
The burial was supposed to provide some sense of closure for Chavez’s family, who had decided on the color of her casket and clothes for her viewing, Morris said.
Because of their religious beliefs, cremations are “generally prohibited” — and Chavez’s cremation has left the family to endure extreme emotional distress, the complaint says. Morris confirmed the family is Catholic.
“The most egregious part of this is that her son, her sister, her parents, and her brother never got to say goodbye to her and are robbed of the hope that they can be together in the afterlife because the funeral home desecrated her body,” Morris said.
Chavez’s son has sought out counseling as a result of the funeral home’s negligence, the complaint says.
Wilfong told the LA Times that the funeral home has never wrongfully cremated someone and that they have measures to ensure that doesn’t happen, according to the newspaper.
Meanwhile, Morris said Chavez’s family wants answers.
“Filing this lawsuit was painful for the family, but they want answers as to what really happened to Loren, how the system failed, why it failed and what can be done to prevent it from ever happening again,” Morris said.
This story was originally published August 10, 2023 at 1:53 PM with the headline "Woman was cremated by accident, lawsuit says. Now family can’t trust if ashes are hers."
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