Nationwide — The family of Joey Espinosa, a 44-year-old man from Covina, California, is suing a funeral home after discovering the wrong body in the casket during his memorial service. The shocking mix-up led to panic, confusion, and even a medical emergency in the chapel.
Espinosa died from heart failure, and his relatives gathered at Forest Lawn West Covina to say their final goodbyes. But as soon as they entered the chapel, his aunt, Laura Levario, realized something was off. The flowers they had chosen were there, but the man in the casket was not Espinosa.
“I noticed the body wasn’t my nephew’s and the coffin we picked out wasn’t,” Levario told WLBT. “I’m thinking, ‘What’s going on?’”
When funeral staff tried to fix the mistake, they led the family to another room only to find another wrong body. It reportedly took more than an hour before workers located Espinosa’s remains, and the service could finally begin.
In the midst of the chaos, Levario’s husband suffered a heart attack inside the chapel. “I woke up three days later in the hospital on life support,” he said. “It’s the worst experience we’ve ever had.”
The Espinosa family later filed a lawsuit against Forest Lawn West Covina, which called the incident a “scheduling error.” Their attorney, Elvis Tran, said the family paid nearly $20,000 for the funeral but was offered only $200 in compensation.
“Instead of mourning and remembering their loved one, they are searching for a body,” Tran said. The family is now demanding accountability and stricter procedures to ensure no other family goes through the same ordeal.