Coronavirus News: Family to sue after woman's body found in truck outside NYC funeral home
FLATLANDS, Brooklyn (WABC) -- A family from Brooklyn announced plans Tuesday to sue a funeral home that they say mishandled and desecrated the remains of their loved one.
The family of 77-year-old Angela Rodriguez, who passed away on March 24, said they made arrangements for cremation with Dekalb Funeral Services.
But on May 7, they say they got a call from the Medical Examiner's Office that Rodriguez's body was found stacked with others in unrefrigerated trucks outside Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services.
Attorneys not clear on connection between the funeral homes, but both will likely be named in the lawsuit to be filed.
The family has since made arrangements for Rodriguez. They are declining to release her cause of death.
Police and the health department were called to the funeral home on April 29 by area residents reporting a foul odor, and city officials say they discovered 100 bodies in two unrefrigerated trucks.
Neighbors indicated to Eyewitness News that they witnessed the bodies being placed into the trucks on and off for a month -- not in caskets but in body bags.
The owner of the funeral home indicated to city officials that its freezer stopped working.
New York state has since suspended the license of Andrew T. Cleckley Funeral Services.
The investigation is ongoing.
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