Woman had the wrong cremains for 27 years: Lawsuit
News footage of Daisy Marshall (left) showing WXYZ reporter Randy Wimbley (right) the urn she was told contained her husband”s ashes (WXYZ).
A Michigan woman who received an urn full of her late husband’s ashes at his memorial service in 1991 was shocked to find out that he had been buried without her knowledge. Now, she is suing the funeral home.
Daisy Marshall, 85, spoke to Detroit-based ABC affiliate WXYZ about her lawsuit against Wilson-Akins Funeral Homes, which handled the funeral of her late husband, Charles Marshall, in 1991. Marshall told WXYZ that at the time of his memorial service, she was presented with an urn that she was led to believe contained her husband’s cremains.
When Marshall went to make pre-arrangements for her own burial in 2022, which included being buried alongside the urn filled with her husband’s ashes, she was told that her husband was already buried.
Love true crime? Sign up for our newsletter, The Law&Crime Docket, to get the latest real-life crime stories delivered right to your inbox.
During her interview with WXYZ, Marshall said that she was told by employees at Great Lakes National Cemetery that “somebody was interred under my husband’s ID already. And the ashes had been delivered there in December of 2018.”
WXYZ reported that in 2018, the state ordered the funeral home to find final resting places for all of their unclaimed remains. The cremains housed at Wilson-Akins Funeral Home that were purported to belong to Charles Marshall, a U.S. Air Force veteran, were laid to rest at Great Lakes National Cemetery.
Daisy Marshall did not find out her husband had been buried until 2022. She told WXYZ that she was “shocked,” and wondered, “Where had those ashes been for all that time, and whose ashes did I have?”
In a lengthy statement to WXYZ, attorney Brunette Brandy, who represents Wilson-Akins Funeral Home, said, “Mrs. Marshall did not want all of the ashes and only took part of the ashes, and directed [the funeral director] to only give her part of the cremated remains and asked that the rest of the cremated remains to go back to Wilson-Akins Funeral Home for storage.”
Brandy further stated, “Mrs. Marshall rejected taking the entire delivery of the cremated remains, as she only wanted part of the ashes, she was under a duty to pick up the ashes at the Wilson-Akins Funeral Home.”
Marshall flatly denied that she made that request. She told WXYZ, “That conversation never happened. It never happened. Even if the conversation had taken place, I was supposed to be given, according to what I’ve read, some written communication to pick those ashes up.”
Brandy stated that the funeral home “exceeded its obligation by storing these cremated remains, which were unclaimed for 27 years.”
A lawsuit was filed in Michigan’s Wayne County on behalf of Daisy Marshall against Wilson-Akins Funeral Home. The litigation is ongoing.
