Jacinta Díaz stood in front of the coffin to say goodbye to her father. But the man who was there had hair. He was taller than him. Nothing matched José Luis Díaz Felipe, the man she had lost weeks earlier in Washington Heights, Manhattan.
Ortiz Funeral Home acknowledged the error: they said they had received two people with the same name and mixed up the bodies. By the time the family realized that something was wrong, it was already too late. José Luis’s actual body had already been cremated, without his children being able to see him one last time.
It wasn’t the first time this funeral home had failed. In 2022, it had already faced a lawsuit from the city of New York after accumulating nearly 50 customer complaints, a case that ended in compensation of 600.000 dollars. Now, Jacinta and her family are seeking justice for an error that cannot be undone.
