Funeral held for wrong body in coffin mix-up

Mourners sat through a full service before the mix-up was detected and funeral directors sent for the correct body.

The confusion happened during a funeral held in a village near Welshpool.

Today Geraint Peate, of RG Peate Funeral Directors in Welshpool issued a "heartfelt apology".

Mr Peate, who has conducted funerals from his Salop Road business for 40 years, stressed that he had been left devastated by the "genuine human error" at St Cadfan Church, Llangadfan.

He was today supported by people in Welshpool, who rallied on social media to pay tribute to his good character.

They included Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies, who said Mr Peate was an "all-round good man".

The funeral director was not directly involved with the funeral at St Cadfan Church.

He said he had immediately acted to apologise to the family once the mistake had been revealed.

Mr Peate said: "It is with deep regret that I confirm that a genuine mistake due to human error was made at a funeral on Friday.

"The matter was rectified immediately.

"Unfortunately, I was not present at the time as I was attending another funeral, at another location.

"I went later, as soon as I could, to see the family, to offer my heartfelt apologies and regrets.

"It was obviously deeply distressing for the family and to those attending the funeral – also to myself and the staff.

"I have known the family for a long time and I have sorted things with them.

"Having provided a caring service to the bereaved of this community for 40 years without a single adverse incident, I am personally devastated by this event. It was put right within an hour or so."

The error came to light when flowers were removed from the casket at the grave and the wrong name was on the plaque.

The funeral was able to continue after the caskets were swapped and the correct body was buried. The mix-up delayed the funeral ceremony by about 40 minutes.

The identity of the body being buried has not been revealed.

However friends and family mourners, speaking on Radio Cymru, said it was like "something out of a film" and that they were "deeply shocked that such a thing had happened".

Montgomeryshire MP Glyn Davies took to Twitter to speak about the mix up.

He said: "Wrong body taken to/through funeral service in St Cadfan's, Llangadfan.

"Upsetting for family, friends and undertaker, an all-round good man."

Twitter user Sheila Evans added: "He's a truly wonderful man, so sad."

And Beryl Vaughan, a former councillor from the area, said the funeral director was a "very professional man" – but had been very busy on the day of the mix-up.

Mr Vaughan said: "He had three funerals to deal with that day, and wasn't actually at this funeral. But I understand he's full of sympathy for the family."

Other funeral mix-ups

In a separate incident in May, The Daily Mail reported a family unwittingly mourned the death of a stranger after the wrong body was released for cremation by an NHS hospital - Southport Hospital, Merseyside.

Health bosses launched an urgent inquiry after the extraordinary mortuary mix-up but by then it was too late.

It is understood the body was cremated, with the wrong relatives gathered at the crematorium, which means they had to go through the heartache of another funeral service, while another family will never be able to say a proper goodbye to their loved one.

The blunder is thought to have occurred because there were two deceased with similar names at the mortuary in Southport Hospital.

In America in March, The Telegraph revealed how grieving relatives noticed something had changed about Val Jean McDonald as they filed past her open casket - but put it down to death and the ravaging effects of the cancer that had killed the 81-year-old woman.

The real reason for the family matriarch's altered appearance was only explained days later when the undertakers admitted that they had mixed her up with someone else.

Mourners who kissed the face of the body lying in the coffin in the Union Baptist Church in New York's Harlem neighbourhood were horrified to learn that they had been paying their respects to the wrong woman.

The mistake only came to light when workers at McCall's Brentwood Funeral Home in the Bronx began making preparations for the other woman's ceremony - and realised it had already taken place.

The error was proven beyond doubt when McDonald's sons were asked to identify the body of the woman remaining in the parlour and duly confirmed it was the mother they thought had already been cremated.