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A family already mourning the loss of a loved one is facing additional hardships after they say a Tennessee funeral home buried a someone else in the wrong grave.
Butch Pharr is one of several people grieving the death of his father, Thomas Pharr, who passed away last week at the age of 96, per WREG. The World War II veterans and former captain of the Memphis Fire Department, the elder Pharr was set to be laid to rest next to his late wife of 63 years, Nancy. However, as the family gathered to say their final goodbyes at Forest Hill Funeral Home in Memphis on Tuesday (October 18), they discovered a stranger was buried in their loved one's planned plot.
"[The staff] said, 'Well I've got to just tell you the truth now.' He said, 'There's another body in your dad's grave,'" Butch recalled. "And somehow or another they put the wrong body in the wrong grave."
The man buried in Pharr's plot was 88-year-old Robert "Bobby" Ray, who passed away earlier this month and was buried in the plot on Tuesday prior to Pharr's service. According to the news outlet, the grave cannot be disturbed until Ray's family signs an order with the health department to have his body exhumed.
Thomas Pharr's daughter, Janis McIntyre, can't believe something like this could happen, let alone to her family.
"This shouldn't happen to anybody," she said. "I mean there's really no closure until we know he's next to our mom."
Butch added, "It's bad enough that it happened but it wouldn't have been as bad to us if someone would have taken responsibility for what had happened instead of trying to pass it off."
As of 2 p.m. Thursday, neither the funeral home nor its parent company have answered WREG's request for comment.