Nationwide — Cashmere Elijah Parker, a 7-year-old African American boy from Dunn, North Carolina, tragically died in an apartment fire on the Fourth of July. His mother, Gloria, said she later learned the $25,000 life insurance policy she believed would help pay for his funeral did not exist.
After Cashmere’s death, Parker contacted American-Amicable Life Insurance to file a claim. She said the company told her there was no active policy for her son.
Parker said she had been paying for the policy every month through an insurance representative who visited her home to collect cash payments. She believes the representative kept the money instead of submitting the payments to the insurance company.
“When you let death hit and then you call and then you find out that your child is not covered, it’s painful,” Parker told My Fox 8.
Cashmere died after a fire destroyed his family’s apartment on July 4. Police in Dunn accused 35-year-old Brittany Armstrong of accidentally starting the fire after setting off aerial fireworks, which are illegal in North Carolina.
The discovery of the insurance policy has made the family’s situation even more difficult. Parker is grieving her son’s death while also dealing with the loss of her home and her husband’s hospitalization after he suffered injuries in the fire.
Parker said she had also been making life insurance payments for herself and two of her grandchildren. Her daughter later filed a complaint with American-Amicable Life Insurance about Cashmere’s policy.
The family said the company told them the representative should not have accepted cash payments because premiums were supposed to be paid through automatic bank drafts or checks.
Parker is now trying to find a way to pay for Cashmere’s funeral. Community members have stepped in to help, including a Pizza Inn fundraiser in Dunn that will donate part of its sales to the family. A GoFundMe campaign has also raised more than $20,500 so far.
American-Amicable Life Insurance has not released a public statement about the situation.