Grave Mistake! Family Shocked to Learn They Visited Wrong Burial Site of their Father for 17 Years

grave mistake wrong grave Tom Bell Thomas Bell Hilda Bell Holy Trinity Church Bell family Rev. Jane Grieve Helen Gallick Eugene Gallick Jr. El Rancho Pioneer Cemetery Simi Valley cemetery

By Lili Scott , Parent Herald Jul 25, 05:10 am

Photo: (Photo : CECILE CLOCHERET/AFP via Getty Images)

A family in Durham in the U.K., who was preparing to bury their recently-deceased mother next to their father, was shocked to learn that they had been visiting the wrong grave for 17 years.

Tom Bell, the son of Hilda and Thomas Bell, learned of the mistake after getting a call from the undertaker. He said that gravediggers found a stranger's coffin at the burial site of their father. It was the remains of a woman.

For nearly five weeks, Hilda's remains were not buried as the cemetery is still tracking down Thomas' actual burial site. The cemetery has checked six plots per Metro as of press time.

Tom said that the matter has been devastating for the family. Before her death, their mother had been visiting their father's burial site, with his marked gravestone, every Friday for nearly two decades.

A second family told their dead is also at the wrong gravesite

While searching for Thomas' remains, the gravediggers also discovered another coffin in the wrong plot. According to the Daily Mail, Holy Trinity Church was forced to inform a second family of the mistake.

Due to full capacity, the cemetery has been closed for new burials for years. However, family members may still bury their dead in existing plots that may be reopened, as in the case of the Bell family.

Holy Trinity Church is still trying to establish how this mix-up happened in 2005. Several families buried their dead at the same time during this period. However, it has been challenging to coordinate records as the original map of the graveyard burned in a fire in the 1980s.

Rev. Jane Grieve, who officiated the funeral services for Hilda, acknowledged the family's distress. Grieve was not the church vicar in 2005, and thus he was not aware of this oversight until these recent discoveries.

He understood the funeral directors and gravediggers were using the gravediggers' plan, and not the original map, to engage the families who had burials years ago. However, the vicar was also not involved in the process and was likely unaware of the mistakes.

"Grave mistakes" in the cemetery are not uncommon

In 2015, a family in the U.S. sued a Simi Valley cemetery for $5 million due to a breach of contract.

Helen Gallick died in 2012 following a series of strokes, and she was buried at the El Rancho Pioneer Cemetery. Two years later, her son, Eugene Gallick Jr., received a call from the new cemetery manager who said their mother's body was not buried at her gravesite, per NBC Los Angeles.

Eugene said they were traumatized to learn they had been visiting the wrong grave. The cemetery eventually found Helen's coffin, but the damage had been done.

In Manchester, a family also learned that they have been laying down flowers for the dead in the wrong grave for 30 years due to a misplaced headstone.

In New Zealand, a daughter who wanted to bury her dad next to her mom learned that the plot was empty. It turned out, however, that their mom had been buried on the wrong side of the lot for the last ten years.