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MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A Memphis family in grief was shocked when they found out someone else was buried in their loved one’s grave and making matters worse, they found out just minutes before his funeral.

The children of the World War II veteran said Forest Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park are disrespectful and poorly managed.

“There were no technical difficulties. They got another body buried in daddy’s grave. They done buried somebody who wasn’t supposed to be there,” said James Pharr, son of the late WWII veteran.

Thomas Pharr was a WWII veteran and a retired captain with 30 years of service for the Memphis Fire Department. His dying wish was to be buried next to his late wife, who died in 2013.

But that didn’t happen.

“It was the kind of the entire service, us sitting there not knowing we couldn’t bury our dad yesterday,” the daughter, Janis McIntyre, said.

“I talked to five different people yesterday, and the only answer I got was, ‘I don’t know.’ how did this happen? I don’t know,” said James.

The family reached out to the director of Forest Hill funeral home for answers.

They wanted to know what the next steps were to bury their father in the right place and found the process to be difficult.

“They had to send everything to their corporate office in Birmingham, Alabama to sign off before removing the casket,” said Joseph Pharr, son of late WWII veteran.

The Pharr family said the director told them they reprimanded the groundskeeper for burying the wrong body in their dad’s grave. The family said the groundkeeper had been employed at Forest Hill for three months.

“All they had to do was tell us the truth. Tell us there was a mistake. We may not have liked it, but we could of handled it a lot better,” Joseph said.

The Pharr family will lay their father to rest Thursday morning.

Fox 13 reached out to Forest Hill Funeral Home for comment. In an emailed statement they said, “We cannot comment out of respect for the families involved and we are working diligently to provide a satisfactory resolution.”

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