Funeral Home Mistake Has Murder Victims Buried In Wrong Graves

A family in Southbridge, Massachusetts, said that a funeral home mix-up resulted in two teenage boys being buried in the wrong cemetery plots — over a year after they were both murdered.

Dante Carlor, 16, and his best friend, K’Shaun Webster, 17, were both fatally shot in Dorchester, Boston, on July 19 last year. The former was buried a month before his 17th birthday, his mother Jamilla Carlor told WBZ Channel 4.

The families of both teens had decided to use George Lopes Funeral Home for the wakes and agreed for the two boys to be buried side by side at Hope Cemetery in Worcester, Massachusetts, as they wanted to keep them together, according to the outlet.

Jamilla, however, noticed that photos of people who had visited her son's grave instead showed them standing on Webster's grave. The confusion prompted Dante's sister, Jaliah, to check the deeds.

"I noticed it had the wrong number, at that time I went to the cemetery every day," Jaliah told the news outlet. "[I] knew something (was) wrong."

It was revealed that Dante had been buried in Webster's plot, while Webster was buried in Dante's, the report said.

"The families of K’Shaun Webster and Dante Carlor suffered unimaginable losses with the deaths of those two young men last year. Their losses were compounded with the inexplicable placement by the George Lopes Funeral Home of the caskets of the two victims in the wrong plots at Hope Cemetery," the city of Worcester said in a statement.

"As soon as the City of Worcester was made aware of this issue, we reached out to the funeral home multiple times to confirm. The funeral home never responded to the City," the statement read.

A similar mix-up had occurred before when police took Jamilla to the hospital where Webster was undergoing emergency surgery, and the 17-year-old teen's family was sent to the hospital where Dante later died.

Hope Cemetery, which is owned by the city of Worcester, told the families of both teens that the mix-up had been caused by the funeral home delivering the caskets to the wrong plots.

The cemetery told both families that one of the boys would have to be exhumed in order to verify who was buried where, according to WBZ. The cemetery had randomly decided to exhume Dante when the families could not reach an agreement.

The teens' families, however, claimed nothing had been done even after the cemetery confirmed the mistake. Additionally, Dante's headstone had been installed on Webster's grave.

"How do you make such a drastic mistake and have no sympathy or empathy or any kind of feelings to help resolve the situation?" Jaliah told the outlet.

The outlet contacted the city, and Dante's headstone was moved within days.

"It's bittersweet. I was happy to see his headstone on his... plot, which is beautiful," Jamilla was quoted as saying.

The investigation into the teens' murders is still ongoing, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Rachel Rollins.