New York family sues funeral home after 96-year-old woman’s casket is sent to wrong country

A New York City family is suing a funeral home for mistakenly sending their mother’s casket to another country for burial.

Carmen Maldonado died two days after her 96th birthday. Her wish was to be buried in Ecuador next to her husband. Her family, who lives in Queens, was preparing for the funeral in Ecuador when they saw a video posted on TikTok that shocked them.

The video showed a family in Guatemala shocked to find a woman’s body in the casket at the funeral for their 38-year-old son. It was Carmen Maldonado.

Both bodies had been prepared by the same funeral home, Rivera Funeral Home in Corona.

“I was devastated, I couldn’t believe that this could be such a big confusion,” said Carmen’s daughter, Rosa Sicha. “I started to cry, and I was incredibly upset.”

The funeral home had sent Carmen to Guatemala in error. Manuel Minchala, the youngest son, flew to Guatemala to bring her home.

“They tried to bury my mom in Guatemala, and I was begging the people there. I had to deal with the health department, the police, a lot of big, big processed to export the body to a different country,” said Minchala.

When the family asked the funeral home about the mix up, they claim the funeral home denied it. Now the family is suing the funeral home and the company that owns it.

“They tried to cover it up, and there is no excuse for that. And if the family did not see this on TikTok and confront them, the funeral home would have never told them,” said attorney Phil Rizzuto.”