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Sisters Say Cemetery Botched Their Mother's Burial

Posted: Feb 6, 2012 5:32 PM
Updated: Feb 7, 2012 7:13 AM


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Grief-stricken sisters say not only did they have to deal with the loss of their mother, now they are trying to cope with what they are calling a botched burial.

Burying a loved one is hard enough, but then you find out the burial didn't go as planned. For one family, it turned into a nightmare. What they say happened to their mother is almost indescribable.

Ruth Ritter says nothing prepared her and her sisters for this. They say their mother, Katherine Galbraith, meticulous in every way in life, was treated beyond comprehension after death. And all three daughters believe employees at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Frankfort "conspired to cover up" what really happened.

"Truly, they had gone... placed it into the ground to cover up hide what had really happened," said Ritter.

Galbraith's daughters say while burying their mother's casket, workers used a back-hoe to lower the casket into the ground, only the casket fell, broke and their mother's body tumbled to the ground. The daughters say employees told them the casket was "bumped and had some scratches on it," but that "the body did not exit the casket."

"They had just simply scooped her up and stuffed her in there and shut the lid."

Will Harrod, the Franklin County Coroner and owner of the funeral home that prepared Galbraith's body, was there when the casket was pulled out of the ground. He's holding the casket for evidence, per the family's request.

"She was dirty from head to toe," said Harrod. "Trash in the casket."

The family snapped a photo of what was found in the bottom of the vault, including Galbraith's pearl necklace.

LEX tried to reach managers at Sunset Memorial Gardens and even left a message for the president of the parent company, Saber Management-Kentucky, LLC. No one got back with us.

Galbraith's family says they're going public with their story to warn others what can happen at burial.

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