A funeral home based in Lewiston, Maine, is being sued for at least $5 million for the mishandling of 11 bodies. The suit follows the unsettling discovery that several loved ones’ bodies were left out in an unrefrigerated area within the crematorium. Although this lawsuit is just one of over a dozen lawsuits filed against the business this past year, this is the first to go to trial.

Families are suing Kenneth Kincer, owner of Affordable Cremation Solutions, for leaving the bodies of deceased individuals in ill-kept conditions. This mistreatment resulted in the rapid decomposition of the bodies. One of the parties suing Kincer, Marielle Bischoff-Wurstle, is the daughter of a man whose body was left in the basement of the funeral home for weeks. During those weeks, the body decayed.

According to Meryl Poulin of Gideon Asen LLC, Kincer stopped coming to work at the beginning of 2021, yet he told his two part-time employees that they should continue to pick up bodies to keep business flowing.

Kincer was the only one at the funeral home with the authority to process the documentation needed for cremations. However, this duty was not fulfilled as he was continuously missing work. Customers were being told that the remains of their loved ones would be taken care of, and that they would be ready for pickup on specific dates. However, many relatives of the deceased could not even get in contact with the crematorium to pick up their loved ones as scheduled.

Instead of being cremated, the bodies were left out in the open, all while Maine was in the midst of a heat wave. The ill-treatment of the bodies did not come to light until the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Augusta called all family members doing business with the funeral home to inform them that their office had custody of their loved ones’ bodies.

Affordable Cremation Solution failed in its mission to operate responsibly, and their actions have caused added emotional distress to those who were already grieving their loved ones. The jury will decide on the outcome of the compensatory damages, and the trial is expected to wrap up soon.

If you or a loved one are in need of legal guidance, do not hesitate to contact Gideon Asen LLC today.