In Maryland, a mother and father are suing a crematory and its operators for allegedly failing to cremate their 2-month-old son and hiding his body inside the now-closed facility. The facility was cited by state officials last year for storing “human remains in cardboard boxes” and other unsettling practices.
Laquanda Brown and Christopher Parham, whose son, Coi’seir Parham, passed away in October, claim that Heaven Bound Crematory operators Rosa Turner and Brandon Williams of Charles County not only failed to cremate the infant but also provided the parents “the wrong ashes.”
In February, the parents learned of the purportedly unsuccessful cremation.
According to Brown, she and Parham were “in disbelief” when the investigator called.
Sara Aguiniga, Brown and Parham’s attorney, told Law&Crime on Thursday that the couple is suing Turner, Williams, Heaven Bound, and Stewart Funeral Services for $10 million over the alleged cremation of their son.
The parents’ complaint states that on February 27, Parham was informed by the police that the ashes were not those of his son.
“Upon receiving this call, Mr. Parham thought that it was a joke, and did not understand how anyone could engage in such a cruel prank,” the complaint says.
Officers allegedly discovered the infant “among the bodies” after receiving a tip that month about human remains being improperly stored at Heaven Bound, according to the lawsuit.
The Heaven Bound Crematory has been under investigation and sanction by the Maryland State Board of Morticians and Funeral Directors for nearly ten years; state records indicate that inspections and sanctions were unsuccessful from 2017 to the beginning of 2024.
According to an order for summary suspension filed by state officials for Turner’s operator registration, the board’s lead investigator inspected the crematory in March 2024 and found “human bodies in cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other with no support between the boxes; human bodies in ripped body bags with arms and legs hanging out of the body bags; human remains that were not being stored at temperatures below 40F; and blood on the refrigeration unit and bodily fluids on the floor.” Williams’ credentials were also revoked.
According to the order, a follow-up check by the board’s investigator in April 2024 found “a strong odor of decomposing remains” and “flies coming out of boxes containing human bodies.”
“He kept telling me from the moment we walked into the funeral home, ‘something’s not right,’” Brown told local NBC affiliate WRC about Parham. “But to find out that a 2-month-old was among those bodies, and was still in the same clothes he was wearing at the time of his funeral is just shocking and devastating.”
