Michigan family accuses Las Vegas funeral home of mishandling mom’s body
LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Michigan family is upset after they claim a Las Vegas funeral home mishandled their mother’s body.
“We went to Las Vegas thinking we were going to bring our mother home, and we are going to take care of her and nurse her back to help. In the end, we lost our mother completely and I’m still not right,” Lynette Gibson and her sister Theresa Reynolds explained.
July was hard enough for Lynette Gibson and Theresa Reynolds who said they were in Las Vegas to help their mother Willie Mae Wilhite move back to Michigan. That’s when they said Wilhite suddenly died as they waited for their flight home.
“She stopped breathing, and they couldn’t find a defibrillator for her,” Gibson explained.
The family was referred to La Paloma Funeral Services to help get their mother’s body to Michigan. Upon her remains being returned, the family said it was not in a condition to have a viewing. Pictures of the body show bruises and what appeared to be exposure to high heat.
“We couldn’t put her away the way that she was we had to do changes and that didn’t sit right with us,” Reynolds said.
Their attorney Christian Morris said they are going to be filing a lawsuit, “It is very evident that the embalming was not correct in this body and there was inability for much of her body to be shown.”
The family has since filed a complaint with the Nevada Funeral Board and online it shows multiple complaints against La Paloma Funeral Services.
They were recently on probation for five years from the State Funeral Board with complaints dating back to 2015. Those complaints include storing bodies in an unrefrigerated warehouse and allowing unauthorized persons to sign off on the cremation of a body. That probation expired in 2022. Wilhite’s incident happened in 2023.
La Paloma sent 8 News Now the following statement.
“Taking care of human beings after death is an honor we take seriously, and we understand the responsibilities that come with it. While we cannot comment on the details of ongoing litigation, we have launched a full internal investigation into the Wilhite family’s experiences with La Paloma Funeral Services and the receiving funeral home in Michigan.”
The family is trying to remember the good things and not what they weren’t expecting to happen. “Anything to do with helping at the church mom was always there,” said Reynolds.
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