Members of an Atlanta family say they were stunned to find their loved one's burial site open Sunday, just three weeks after the man's funeral.
Mary Ann Coleman said when she showed up to lay flowers on her father’s grave, she found that the area had been dug up and a casket was lying in the open.
The vice president of Lincoln Cemetery in northwest Atlanta says it is one big misunderstanding. He says nobody is in that casket, and that their loved one is nearby, which is causing major confusion for the family.
The family disagrees. Family members believe the exposed casket is the same one they lowered into the ground during Coleman’s father’s funeral service on Oct. 8.
His wife says Coleman spoke to her in a dream this week.
“My sister said, ‘He said he’s still not resting,’” his sister-in-law Rosalyn Burts said.
She says that’s what spurred family members to take a look at the grave and they were shocked by what they found.
"This doesn't allow him to rest, well not in peace,” Mary Ann Coleman said.
The vice president was adamant that Coleman is not in the casket located in the area designated for easy payment plan funeral home packages.
“There is a brand-new vault in the ground. Nobody is in that vault,” he said. “That grave was opened last week for a family that canceled their service. All we did was put a top on an empty vault.”
The grave, he says, will be ready for another family this week, and Coleman is nearby.
"Yeah, every grave out there (is within inches). If you take one step, you're standing on a brand-new grave,” he said.
The family says they won't be able to rest until Monday morning, when the vice president says they will prove that Coleman is not in the exposed casket.
The cemetery says it'll pull out the family's paperwork and measurements to show them where Coleman is buried. That will happen when it reopens Monday morning.
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