Key Takeaways
- Kimberly Moore’s five children say they found another woman’s body dressed in their mother’s clothes and wig at a Detroit funeral home viewing.
- The family says Hutchinson Funeral Home told them Moore had mistakenly been cremated before her funeral, despite plans to cremate her afterward.
- The funeral home apologized and launched an internal review as Detroit police investigate and staff work to identify the other woman.
A Detroit family says they arrived at a funeral home expecting to see their mother one final time, only to discover another woman's body in her casket.
The incident happened at Hutchinson Funeral Home on East 7 Mile Road, where the five children of 61-year-old Kimberly Moore had gathered ahead of her funeral.
According to the family, the woman presented for the viewing was wearing Moore's dress and wig, but they quickly realized the body wasn't hers.
"We get here. That's not my momma," one family member told Fox 2 Detroit. "This woman got on my momma's dress, wig, everything. They put the body up, so we came earlier. They tried to show us another lady. They opened the casket. It's not her."
Moore's daughter Bianca Robinson said a missing mole on the woman's toe confirmed her suspicions.
"When he unzipped the bag, I looked at the toe, and I was like, it's not a mole on her toe, and I turned around, and I looked at him. I said this is not my mama, sir. He said I'm so sorry," Robinson said.
The family was then left scrambling to determine what had happened to Moore's remains.
"I said, 'Where's my momma?'" another family member recalled. "One family member said, 'Oh, she's upstairs.' And then my cousin said, 'They just told us we didn't have her. Now she's here? Where is my momma?'"
The family says they were eventually told Moore had already been cremated despite plans for her cremation to take place only after her funeral.
Hutchinson Funeral Home has since apologized and opened an internal review.
"We are heartbroken and deeply sorry for what Ms. Moore's family has experienced. We are aware of the family's concerns and we will continue to communicate with them honestly and respectfully," the funeral home said in a statement.
"We have launched our own internal review to determine exactly what happened and we will deal with it accordingly," the statement continued. "Out of respect for Ms. Moore and her family, we ask that their privacy be honored during this time. We will share more when we can."
Family spokesperson Mario Morrow said the funeral home is trying to determine exactly how the apparent mix-up happened.
"We know that there was an issue. We know there's a problem, and we want to make it whole," Morrow said. "We want to make the family feel comfortable with their loved one and make sure that we have some conclusion to this."
The Moore family is also hoping to locate the relatives of the unidentified woman whose body they say was prepared for their mother's viewing.
Moore's funeral had been scheduled for Saturday, though her family was still determining how to move forward. Detroit police are investigating the incident.
