Parents sue after US funeral homes allegedly return son's brain in box

Two funeral homes in the United States allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week.

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 to another in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabelled red box.

At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler couldn't 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 some 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 AP.

"The parents' last memory is holding their son's brain," said Stewart in an interview with The Associated Press.

"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 labelled biohazardous.

Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleges, they shouldn't 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 titular funeral home, told the AP that "it was definitely not our fault" because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabelled box.

Nix said they reported it to authorities once they learned what was inside. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found they weren't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that weren't 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 won't happen again.

Garlington, a veteran of the US Marines who was working in financial aid for schools, has since been buried in Washington Crossing National Cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still don't know whether Garlington's brain was buried with the rest of him.

"They fear, which is totally understandable: Is he resting in peace?" he said.