Mass. Funeral Home Questioned Over Bodies Mix-Up

Massachusetts officials are ordering a Brookline funeral home to explain how it mixed up the bodies of two women last August.

A Brighton man says Stanetsky Memorial Chapels buried his 96-year-old mother in the wrong grave, only to dig her up just before her actual funeral.

"They didn't tell me there was a mistake," Bruce Zippin said. "They didn't tell me there was any problem. They tried to hide it."

According to a state regulatory board, Stanetsky Memorial Chapels buried the body of one woman in the other's Woburn grave, and switched the bodies the next day. The mistakenly buried body was re-interred four days later in Boston as planned.

The board says one family was not told promptly and the other wasn't notified. But it said the funeral staffers told state investigators the families were notified promptly. The company has three weeks to respond.

A spokeswoman for Stanetsky's Houston-based owner, Service Corporation International, says the company is cooperating with the state, works hard to prevent mistakes and is working with the family to rectify the situation.