NJ Funeral Home Never Buried Veteran's Remains, Lawsuit Claims

MIDDLETOWN, NJ — A woman has filed a lawsuit against a Middletown funeral home and cemetery, claiming her father's remains were never buried at the gravesite she had been visiting for more than 30 years.

The lawsuit filed by Deborah Ugara in Superior Court of Union County accuses John F. Pfleger Funeral Home and Mount Olivet Cemetery of negligence after learning her father's cremated remains were not buried in their family plot following his death in 1993.

The lawsuit also names St. James Roman Catholic Church in Red Bank as a defendant.

According to court documents, Ugara's father and Vietnam War veteran George Jonas died on May, 16, 1993. Following cremation, the lawsuit claims the defendants told Ugara her father's remains were interred at Mount Olivet.

"Every year since May of 1993, (Ugara) has visited the site and paid respect to her father’s purported interment location for his birthday and all holidays, including the most recent Father’s Day, which was just two days before receiving the heartbreaking news about the real location of her father’s cremains," the lawsuit states.

According to court documents, Ugara was contacted in June by an organization that works to locate and bury unclaimed veterans' remains. A representative for the organization told Ugara that Pfleger Funeral Home was still in possession of her father's remains, the lawsuit states.

According to court documents, Ugara was given her father's remains on June 19.

"It hurts a lot," Uraga said in an interview with News 12 New Jersey. "I thought he was there and it's like it's just unbelievable. My father should be in the cemetery with the rest of his family."

The lawsuit also accuses the defendants of infliction of emotional distress, as well as "reckless and outrageous" behavior.