Tuesday was the start of a three-week trial about a Bartlett cemetery accused of mishandling and abusing remains.
More than 1200 families are suing Galilee Memorial Cemetery and more than two dozen funeral homes in Memphis. Many families have been waiting for years to get some sort of closure.
The trial is to determine who should pay for the issues caused at Galilee Memorial Cemetery. Attorneys for the families say the cemetery was unlicensed from 2011 to 2014, but was still practicing burials.
“They couldn’t find his body. They never found his body,” said Sandra Hobson, whose father was buried at Galilee Memorial Gardens. “The funeral home knew. They knew, because if you would have waited those few minutes, you would have seen there wasn’t even a hole dug for my father.”
Hobson is one of hundreds of people searching for answers concerning their loved ones’ remains.
“We don’t have a grave site to go visit for Father’s Day, for his birthday or just because. This is the reason when my mom passed we had her cremated because I wasn’t going through this no more,” Hobson explained.
Hobson says her father Marshall Lewis Hobson Sr. was supposed to be buried at Galilee Cemetery, but she never had the opportunity to see his body lowered into the ground.
“All I ask for you is put my father to rest. Simple as that,” Hobson stressed.
The state shut down Galilee Cemetery in 2014, after learning owner Jemar Lambert was burying multiple bodies in the same graves.
“This is about what should have happened. And this is about what did happen because the evidence will show the funeral directors didn’t do their job,” said Kathryn Barnett, Plaintiff Attorney.
Tuesday, opening statements and testimonies began in this long-awaited trial. Attorneys representing the funeral home directors told jurors it was the cemetery’s responsibility to make sure burials were done correctly.
“The cemetery had a contract too. They had a contract to bury that body where they said they would in a proper dignified fashion,” said John Branson, attorney for MJ Edwards Funeral Home.
Hobson says no matter what comes out of this trial, it does not bring back her father’s remains.
“No matter what they give us, I ain’t got my daddy. I don’t even have no place to go and see him,” Hobson said.
The trial will continue Wednesday morning at the Shelby County Commission building.
