Sunset Memorial Gardens sells same plot twice, leaving family with no gravesite for loved one
Frances Collier learned that a cemetery plot she and her husband Charlie bought at Sunset Memorial Gardens in Spotsylvania County, VA had been bought three years earlier by someone else. Frances Collier learned the news just hours before her husband was to be buried.
BY JEFF BRANSCOME
Frances Collier tried to stay positive for the more than 500 people who attended her husband’s wake.
But she couldn’t shake the fact that she didn’t have a place to bury Charles Collier, the lead singer of a country band called the Midnight Cowboys and her spouse of 30 years.
“I just can’t believe this is happening to me,” said Collier, 53, who lives in the Woodford area of Caroline County. “I had to watch my husband suffer so long it’s just really hard.”
Charles Collier died Jan. 19 at age 60 from Lou Gehrig’s disease, which eventually robs people of their ability to talk, eat and move.
Shortly before the visitation at a funeral home last Sunday, Frances Collier learned that Sunset Memorial Gardens in Spotsylvania County had sold what she thought was her husband’s grave site to somebody else.
Her family purchased the plot in 1988, but apparently another person had also bought it three years earlier, she said.
In other words, the cemetery off U.S. 1 had sold the plot to two people, and the man who purchased it first was the actual owner.
“I’ve been living a lie all these years, and that’s what really hurts me,” Collier said.
She contacted The Free Lance–Star about her plight.
“I just don’t want this to happen to some other poor person,” she said. “This hurt me deeply.”
SEEKING RESOLUTION
After Frances Collier’s father died in 1988, the family purchased six plots for her and her husband, her two brothers and her parents.
Her brother Joe Durrette Jr., 58, purchased another two plots in 1995. It’s unclear if any of the family’s plots other than Charles Collier’s site were double-sold.
Sunset Memorial verified the error last week after the first buyer of the plot saw that the grave site had been dug up, Collier said. StoneMor Partners LP, based in Bristol, Pa., operates Sunset Memorial Gardens, Laurel Hill Memorial Park in Spotsylvania and Oak Hill Cemetery in Fredericksburg.
In light of the mistake, Frances Collier is asking the cemetery to pay Durrette for his two plots and give them to her so she and her husband can be buried next to each other. It’s unclear what would happen to her existing plot.
So far they haven’t come to an agreement, Collier said. Cemetery officials offered to give what her sister-in-law referred to as two “makeshift plots” near a trash can and the roadway that winds through the cemetery.
“They made the mistake,” Collier said. “I just don’t understand why they wouldn’t want to work with me and do what I would like to do.”
She is also asking for refunds of the fees associated with the vault inspection and the opening and closing of the grave site.
Spotsylvania attorney Ed Younger, who is providing free legal advice to Collier, said cemetery officials on Thursday indicated they may accept Collier’s offer—which they initially declined—with certain conditions. Those conditions include a nondisclosure agreement, which Younger called unacceptable.
“It increases the likelihood that other people will be victims in the future,” he said.
David Mullins, co-owner of Covenant Funeral Service near Four-Mile Fork in Spotsylvania, said Collier “came up with a very gracious alternative to try to get things worked out.”
Covenant has agreed to keep Charles Collier’s body free of charge until he is buried.
On Monday the family had a service for Charles Collier at the funeral home. They also had what Frances Collier referred to as a graveside service at Sunset’s mausoleum.
At the time, her husband’s original grave site had been opened but was surrounded by yellow caution tape.
“I think it was very distasteful,” Durrette said.
On Thursday the grave had been filled in with dirt. A piece of yellow tape lay nearby.
COMPLAINT FILED
Collier, with the help of Younger, filed a complaint last week with the Virginia Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation. The state agency oversees cemetery operators and other professions throughout the state.
The complaint requests an investigation of Sunset Memorial Gardens, including audits of all contracts and cemetery lots to “determine any other fraudulent transactions resulting in double selling/payment of cemetery lots.”
“The loss of my husband is very stressful; however, not finalizing his burial arrangements due to negligence of Sunset Memorial Gardens is too painful to endure,” the complaint states. “My husband deserves a respectful and speedy burial.”
An official with Sunset Memorial Gardens, who refused to give her name, declined to comment Friday. Officials with StoneMor Partners could not be reached for comment.
State records show Oak Hill Cemetery was fined $500 in 2003 because two people were sold the same plot, and the second buyer’s nephew was buried there. The nephew had to be disinterred.
The Free Lance–Star in 2005 reported that Sunset had sold the same plot to two people. StoneMor’s chief operating officer said then that the company gives the lot to the first buyer when such a mistake occurs. He said the company does everything possible to accommodate the second family with something better than what they had.
Mary Broz Vaughan, a spokeswoman for the Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation, said it’s infrequent that cemeteries double-sell plots, but not unheard of.
“At the end of the day, mistakes do happen,” she said. “Unfortunately, when they happen in this realm, it’s really a sad and emotional situation.”
A DIGNIFIED BURIAL
Collier described her husband as a giving person who loved to tell jokes.
“He had everybody laughing,” she said.
He worked as a meat cutter at BJs and would buy cases of corn and string beans for the Fredericksburg Area Food Bank.
He sang at benefits, including one for a boy who had a lot of medical expenses after being in a car wreck.
Charles Collier also liked Mustangs and Rodney Dangerfield, and his band opened for famous singers such as Lorrie Morgan, Gene Watson and Billy “Crash” Craddock.
He had 15 brothers and sisters.
Frances Collier said she just wants to put him to rest.
“He had a dignified service, and he needs a dignified burial,” said Collier’s sister-in-law, Mary Lou Collier. “The family should not have to endure this.”
Jeff Branscome: 540/374-5402
jbranscome@freelancestar.com
