Lawsuits: 17 families say “Best Funeral Ever” TV stars mishandled remains
Hales & Sellers PLLC
Lawsuits: 17 families say “Best Funeral Ever” TV stars mishandled remains
Golden Gate Funeral Home, John Beckwith Jr., and Beckwith, Inc. are defendants
Months after the Texas Funeral Service Commission announced it was investigating whether Golden Gate Funeral Home’s operators mishandled corpses, 17 families have sued the TLC reality TV stars, alleging they mishandled their loved ones’ remains.
Attorneys Jack Hales and Ryan Sellers have filed 14 lawsuits since Jan. 13, on top of three others last year. More filings are expected this week. The attorneys are available for comment and can facilitate family interviews.
“Some families received the wrong remains, others received none at all,” said Sellers. “Some families, like Jackie Carlisle, were forced to view their loved ones in a grotesque state of decomposition.”
TLC’s Best Funeral Ever made Golden Gate Funeral Home Texas’s most high-profile mortuary. The episodes show the Dallas-based mortuary producing extravagant and unique funerals such as one in which remains are placed in a football and kicked over a goal post.
But when it comes to properly handling average customers’ funerals, Golden Gate repeatedly fumbles the ball and makes the families’ darkest day darker, said the attorneys, who specialize in funeral home negligence.
Jennifer Denise Hall passed away on June 14, 2020. When her friend Jackie Carlisle visited Golden Gate five days later to view Jennifer’s remains, Golden Gate brought out Jennifer’s partially decomposed body, according to a lawsuit filed by Carlisle. Hall’s abdomen was severely bloated, her skin had dark splotches and discoloration, and she was still wearing her hospital gown, the lawsuits say.
Golden Gate failed to notify the family of Aldo Busby, who died in 2018, that his cremated remains were available, according to Busby’s adult children. Months later, when the family visited Golden Gate, they learned that the facility cremated and discarded the remains, says the family’s lawsuit.
Golden Gate delivered two sets of ashes to family members of Felix Thomas Miller, who died in 2020. The funeral home claimed that both sets of remains belonged to Miller, but the lawsuit filed by his widow raises serious doubts about Golden Gate’s diligence and about who actually received the deceased man’s remains, if anyone.
“For this scale of damage to have been done, Golden Gate has demonstrated a reckless disregard for the unique trust families in this community place on them,” said Hales.
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