Daughter sues funeral home after discovering Vietnam veteran father’s remains were never buried at cemetery

A New Jersey woman alleges a funeral home never buried her father’s cremated remains in the family plot, complete with his name etched on a headstone and a small placard reading “Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States” that she has dutifully visited every year since he died at age 78 on May 16, 1993.

Debbie Uraga, 69, has visited the grave of her father, George Jonas Sr., at the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown Township on birthdays and holidays but says she learned something disturbing two days after her last holiday visit on Father’s Day, June 16.

She got a disturbing Facebook message from a U.S. Air Force veteran working on an initiative to provide full military burials of unclaimed Vietnam War veterans.

“If your dad was George S Jonas and died on 5/16/1993 in Middletown, Vietnam Veterans of America is trying to locate family for permission to inter his unclaimed cremains at BG William C Doyle Veterans Cemetery with full military honors,” the message allegedly read.

Uraga was overcome with emotion.

“For 31 years, I assumed my father was buried at the cemetery,” she told New York CBS affiliate WCBS. “Now it’s like reliving everything.”

She learned her father’s remains had been stored in the funeral home’s basement. She has since received the remains and has filed a lawsuit against the John F. Pfleger Funeral Home, the cemetery and a church.

Her lawyer, Michael Shaw, called it reprehensible conduct.

“There was a complete breakdown of internal procedures for chain of custody that is to prevent these exact types of incidents from occurring,” he told News 12 New Jersey.

The funeral home’s owner said Jonas’ cremation and services were handled with the utmost care, and they tried to contact Uraga numerous times.

“All attempts by our funeral home to seek final disposition instructions from the Jonas family 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,” according to a statement published in New York CBS affiliate WCBS.

Uraga told the station that no one from the funeral home ever contacted her, even though she said the cremation certificate included her name and address.

The case stretches back decades to when her beloved father and Army veteran died on May 16, 1993, the lawsuit said.

Uraga made arrangements through the funeral home for his funeral, which included a Catholic viewing, followed by cremation at Monmouth Memorial Park Crematory, court documents said.

His cremains were then to be interred either in the family plot at Mount Olivet Cemetery’s grounds or on the grounds of St. James R.C. Church next to the remains of his wife, son, and daughter, the lawsuit said. His remains were purportedly cremated on May 18, 1993. No ceremony at the cemetery was held, and the family was not present for the interment of the cremains, court documents said.

Have a tip we should know? [email protected]