Pennsylvania Woman Blames Funeral House For Exchanging Baby’s Ashes With Dog's Cremains

A Pennsylvania woman, Jennifer Dailey, is considering suing a funeral house after she discovered last week that the funeral house accidentally exchanged her baby's cremains with that of a pet dog in 2015. Dailey had delivered a stillborn baby girl. She named her Jerrica Sky and the body was cremated in April 2015 at the Bauer Funeral Home in Kittanning, local media reports said.

Dailey had put the cremains in a box and had cherished it for two years until last week when her husband suggested they spread the ashes in some place that would hold more meaning for the family. When she opened the box after mustering the courage, she saw a metal plate that read "Butler Pet Cremation" and instantly felt something was wrong, the shocked mother told WTAE, an ABC-affiliate.

Dailey instantly contacted the funeral home, which contracts with the Thompson-Miller Funeral Home in Butler County. The latter admitted its fault. "They told me a mistake had been made and I was given somebody’s pet and they were given my daughter. It turned the worst thing that could possibly happen to me in my life into a thousand times worse," she said.

The Thompson-Miller Funeral Home operates a pet and human crematory, and according to the owner, both run as separate operations. "The mistake is mine. Quite honestly I made a mistake. I had two identical containers. I just simply put the wrong label on the wrong container. The Bauers and the Bauer family and the Bauer funeral home are not at fault," said Glenn Miller, the owner said.

The Bauer Funeral Home clarified they only arranged the cremation through Miller. “I wanted the public to know how deeply saddened I am that this happened and that I’m so sorry for the family and that it was a mistake, it was human error and that I’m so thankful we were able to rectify it extremely quickly,” The Bauer Funeral Home owner Jennifer Bauer Eroh said.

After Dailey complained, the two funeral homes tracked down the remains of the baby and handed it over to the grieving couple. However, Dailey and her husband are still skeptical if they have been given their baby's cremains, WTAE reported. The couple is considering a possibility of a DNA test. The husband-wife duo is also considering a legal action.

Meanwhile, these kinds of incidents are not unheard. In May, a gay man sued a funeral home in Mississippi, alleging that it refused to cremate his husband as it did not "deal with their kind," reports said. However, the funeral home denied the claims in response to the lawsuit.

In April, two brothers sued a Manhattan funeral home for mixing the ashes of their mother with that of an unrelated man, the New York Daily News reported citing the lawsuit. The sons were already dealing with the heartache of losing their mother when they were informed about the mix-up. There was no comment from the funeral home's side, the report said.

In June 2015, a Texas man sued a funeral home for negligence after the coffin of his wife, buried inside a concrete vault eight years ago, resurfaced on the ground due to heavy flooding in the area, reports said. The funeral home did not return a request for comment.