A woman from Oklahoma is pursuing legal action against a nearby funeral home, claiming that the process of retrieving her stillborn baby’s remains was mishandled.
Aurora Hartley expressed her enthusiasm about motherhood, yet she felt heartbroken when she experienced preterm labor at 27 weeks in November 2023. Hartley experienced the loss of a stillborn child named Hadley. Following the birth, Hadley’s body was entrusted to the Medical Examiner’s office in Oklahoma City for an autopsy to be conducted.
Hartley’s legal representatives stated that Hadley’s remains were subsequently transferred by the Medical Examiner’s office to Alpha and Omega Mortuary for cremation. Hartley subsequently collected what she believed to be Hadley’s cremated remains along with the hospital birthing blanket from Brown’s Funeral Service in Coalgate, Oklahoma.
John Zelbst, the attorney representing Hartley, stated that his client discovered the remains of the child upon opening the birthing blanket, as reported by Oklahoma City CBS affiliate KWTV.
“You can only imagine the shock and disgust,” the lawyer told local news.
The family went back to Brown’s Funeral Service seeking clarity, only to discover they had been given an urn containing the ashes of an unidentified individual, rather than their child’s remains.
“We have an urn with ashes that no one knows who they belong to,” Zelbst said. “It’s not our clients’ baby. So what family is missing their loved one?”
Zelbst reported that the funeral home informed Coalgate police that the ashes in question were not Hadley’s remains, but rather the ashes of a cremated placenta.
“They give this excuse that it’s the placenta, which is not a placenta. It has no characteristics of a cremation,” said Zelbst, according to KWTV. “So that starts the cover-up.”
Dan Markoff, an attorney for Hartley, expressed that he is anticipating action from the state board to intervene and potentially close one or both of the funeral service providers.
In April 2024, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) conducted an investigation into the operator of Alpha & Omega Mortuary Service and Crematory regarding potential breaches of federal employment regulations. The funeral home is managed by Stillwell Limited, Inc. The Department of Labor announced that Stillwell failed to provide its employees with the appropriate overtime pay for hours worked beyond 40 in a week. The organization did not maintain adequate documentation, which is mandated by federal regulations.
The Wage and Hour Division of the DOL successfully secured $231,390 in back wages along with an equivalent sum in damages for 66 employees of Stillwell.
“By denying their employees all of their hard-earned wages, Alpha and Omega Mortuary Service and Crematory violated the law and harmed the people on whom the company depends to work long hours to provide an important service to the community in return for low wages,” said Wage and Hour Division District Director Michael Speer in Oklahoma City in a statement in April. “We are committed to protecting workers and providing clear and confidential compliance assistance to any employee or employer with questions.”