ComplaintsforWhitney & Murphy Funeral Home

• Initial Complaint

  01/24/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On Saturday 01-22-2022 My sister ***********************, picked up My brother ********** death certificate, from Whitney Funeral home. Once I received mines. I noticed it said my brother was married, to ***********************? She is the mother of his 2 last kid's,. Together for 16 years but, He was never married ever. Then I found out through the funeral home that their employees. Cerlinda, " Just happens to be Jorginas sister, sister in law". So ***********************, is Jorginas sister and Cerlinda (The employee) is ********* sister in-law. Now it all makes sense to How Jorginas was able to obtained a fake Marriage certificate from "******", and have it filed by Cerlinda. My Parents ******** and *************************, paid for everything because he wasn't married. We had a right to see the certificate and we never did. Everything was Done behind our Backs by: Cerlinda the employee ***********************, the sister in-law of Cerlinda and Jorginas ****. The baby mamma Not Wife. None of have seen or Witness a marriage., Or marriage certificate. Per Jorginas oldest daughter *********************** said her mom was never married and didn't go to ******, to get married. Her own daughter spoke up. We are so Disappointed, Upset, and disgusted by the Actions taken By Cerlinda, allowed by the Director *******, Mc Grath from Whitney & Murphy Funeral home. We will never use their services ever Again, and I hope to get Justice for my Brother. ASAP. PLEASE look in to this Fraudulent situation. So that Cerlinda and other disloyal corrupted employees won't do this to another families. I also filed a police report on 1-22-2022 report # *********** with Officer ******** I will also be reporting this Fraudulent situation to the Social security Office. Thank you.

  

  Business response

  05/09/2022

  Sorry for the slow response as this email is the first correspondence I have seen as to this issue with the BBB.

  To address the complaint:

  ************ passed away at St ***************** on December 25, 2021. Our initial contact was directly from the hospital. On the intake form we ask who the next of kin is etc. St ******* gave us *****************, wife as her relationship. We were asked to however reach out to his sister ****** as **** was ill with COVID. Reading the Hospital release form, they have ***************** listed as wife and POA on there. We eventually set an appointment for the family to come make arrangements at Whitney & Murphy. There were a large number of people that were present at that meeting, but not **** as she was ill. One of the functions of a funeral home is to interview the family to obtain the vital information required to appear on an ******* death certificate. This information is provided by the family directly to the funeral home and is subsequently entered onto the document itself. Funeral homes are not required in any way to confirm the information that is provided, it is solely responsible to enter the data as given. Since **** was not present, there was a discussion as to their marital status. There were split family members opinions as to if they did in fact go to ****** and get married. We were ultimately instructed to list them as married on the death certificate. There was never any fake marriage license given to us and then filed, as we have no need to ever see one. Our role is to list the information as given by the family, as we have no investigative responsibilities to confirm any of the information. It is not our place to make someone prove they were or were not ever married. All of the documents that we saw, beginning with the hospital forms as well as the obituary given to us, stated they were married. 

  In speaking recently to some of the family that were part of this process, they are still split on it, but that's their issue. There is no document disproving they were married. We did not now, nor ever, modify any documents for any family that we have served in our 119 years of serving families here in *******. We are sorry that this family is not in agreement with the document and certainly sorry that any of them are unhappy with our services because of it.

  
  

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