Mom's Remains Accidentally Cremated: Nutley Funeral Home Reportedly Involved In Fiasco

Nutley, NJ - Who was responsible for the remains of Consuela Rivera?

Biondi Funeral Home in Nutley is among three businesses who were allegedly involved in a chain of custody that resulted in the mistaken cremation of a New Jersey woman’s remains, reports say.

According to a lawsuit, Rivera’s sons are alleging that they first hired Biondi Funeral Home to handle their mother’s arrangements after her March 22 death.

After reportedly getting into an argument with the Essex County funeral home, the brothers then asked First Avenue Funeral Services of Manhattan to transport their mother to R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home in Brooklyn, according to NY DailyNews.com.

But on Easter, the grieving family got a phone call from First Avenue Funeral Services that their mother was accidentally cremated just a day earlier.

“The remains of Consuelo remain missing, and the heartbroken and bewildered family is unable to say their final goodbyes,” a lawyer for the family told NY Daily News, who added that the family planned for a wake and burial, not cremation.

If that wasn’t enough, the brothers allege, they eventually managed to track their mother’s body to the Rosemont Crematorium in Elizabeth, where they received the wrong person’s ashes.

According to a lawsuit filed in Bronx Supreme Court, the brothers allege that they returned to First Avenue Funeral Services and were again given the remains of the wrong person.

None of the involved businesses have admitted responsibility for the mistake as of Friday afternoon.

“I feel terrible,” Anthony Biondi Jr. told NY Daily News. “This is bad. This is somebody’s mother ... I wish I had some answers for the family, I really do.”

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