Family sues after funeral home sends son's brain in unmarked leaking box
The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a 'good young man', their son, Timothy Garlington.
'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears.
After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia, where their son died, to another where the family lived, in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box.
At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler tried but could not open the red box, said the Butlers' attorney, L Chris Stewart, at the news conference.
Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, 'which was brain matter. It's insane,' Stewart said.
When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and a mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said.
The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press.
'The parents' last memory is holding their son's brain,' said Stewart in an interview with the AP.
'I had to get rid of that car,' Lawrence Butler said, 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.'
The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress.
Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain 'separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion'. If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled as a biohazard.
Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleged, they should not have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations.
Julian Nix, the manager of the eponymous funeral home, told the AP that 'it was definitely not our fault' because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix told local news that his team believed the box held personal effects and that other funeral homes usually only send intact remains.
Nix said that once they learned what was inside the box, they reported it to authorities. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found Nix & Nix wasn't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that were not yet available.
The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning so that similar incidents will not happen again.
'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' said Stewart. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.'
Garlington, a veteran of the US marines who was working in school financial aid in Atlanta, according to his LinkedIn, has since been buried in Washington Crossing national cemetery.
Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still do not know whether his brain was buried with the rest of his remains.
'They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?' he said.
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