On Monday, The Greek Herald first reported an incident which saw a mix-up of two bodies placed in the wrong caskets leaving two Greek Australian families devastated.
During a funeral service last Friday, Despina Nicolopoulos was farewelling her late husband of 57 years.
The family opened the casket to pay their respects to their beloved husband, father and grandfather, and saw the body in the casket was not their family member.
“My daughter say ‘Mum not my father this one… another man’,” Despina told 7News on Tuesday.
“Terrible thing to happen,” Mrs Nicolopoulos said.
The family later found out that her late husband’s body had been buried two hours earlier.
Despina’s son, Bill, explained during the same interview that although the family acknowledges the mistake was “a pure accident” it is “just devastating”.
The funeral home, Euro Funeral Services, told 7News that the mix-up occurred during a routine procedure and that both families were offered a refund over the ordeal.
Euro Funeral Services Funeral Director, Spiro Haralambous apologised for the incident saying he wished he could “turn it back for the families”.
“The procedure is normally that one should check the ID on the body before they actually put the coffin lid with the name plate on the coffin,” Haralambous said.
“This is where that procedure was not followed through.”
The Nicolopoulos family, is now enquiring to find out how their loved one’s body could be exhumed without permission or consent.
READ MORE: Funeral mix up sends shockwaves through Sydney’s Greek community
