WOODBRIDGE, Va. — Brenda Karpaiya and her sisters watched an employee press the button to begin cremating their father's body. They thought it was a simple process. But a bizarre twist unearthed concerns for the family who discovered his body was never cremated, despite the funeral home handing off an urn of ashes.
The family said it was too difficult to watch the body enter the crematory at Miller Funeral Home and Crematory in Woodbridge last Friday and planned to return on Monday to pick up the ashes in time for the memorial for their 73-year-old father, Gangadar Sohan, who died of pneumonia on March 21.
However, that Sunday, a man who identified himself as a worker at Miller Funeral Home visited Karpaiya's home and informed them that Gangadar Sohan's body was not cremated. Home surveillance video captured the man telling the family, "I need to tell you some important stuff...he's not cremated."
"We would never have suspected it, because everything went well until this guy showed up to my house," Karpaiya said. "We questioned what ashes we were going to get because we already had burial services scheduled on Monday."
Karpaiya said they came back on Monday and received a box from the staff that claimed to be the ashes of her father. They also received a document signed by the office manager that certified his remains were cremated.
Upset by what they were tipped off to the previous day, she and her sister Tania Sohan began recording their interaction on their cell phones.
In one video, they sat down with a staff member and revealed what they learned.
"We get the confidentiality, but we just want to make sure our father isn't back there," Karpaiya could be heard as the phone was laid on the table while the camera was pointed towards the ceiling. "This is setting alarms off for us. I'm not accusing you, I just want to make sure."
In another video, Karpaiya managed to get back to the room where a box could be seen with her father's name printed across. You could see her lift the box to see him still lying there. The video continues with her asking, "Why are you lying to me? This is my dad,"
In another video, Karpaiya is heard asking a different employee, "You gave me the ashes! You gave me the ashes! Whose ashes did I get?"
The family said the owner came out and tried to mitigate the situation by offering to cremate the body then. Tania Sohan said it is one thing if there was a mistake, but she felt misled.
"We were given an urn with ashes, and we don't know whose body that belonged to or what it's in it," Tania Sohan said. "We just want peace, we want closure with my dad and that whatever happens doesn't happen to anyone else."
After WUSA9 contacted the Miller Funeral Home for comment, a representative acknowledged over the phone what the family recounted was true. The representative said they thought his body was cremated only to find out on Monday that it was not. The manager said they have reimbursed the family for the urn and are looking into whose ashes they handed over.
WUSA9 asked the funeral home director and officer manager for a sit-down interview and sent a list with more questions including why the body was not cremated in the first place, what safeguards are in place to prevent a similar situation from happening again. WUSA9 called the funeral home to follow up but the office manager said she could not make a comment.
Prince William County police confirmed they responded to the funeral home but deemed nothing was criminal. They notified the Virginia Department of Health and state licensing board.
A Virginia Department of Health Professions spokesperson said the Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers can neither confirm nor deny whether an investigation of a licensee or establishment over which they have jurisdiction is being or has been conducted.
On Wednesday, the body of Gangadar Sohan was transferred to Fairfax Memorial Funeral Home where family witnessed the cremation. His funeral is scheduled for Friday.