A funeral home in San Jose, California, is facing a lawsuit after allegedly committing a horrifying error, giving a father his dead son's brain in a plastic bag when he had asked to collect the young man's clothing.
The Tragic Error and Discovery
The case centres on the Lima Family Erickson Memorial Chapel and its handling of the burial of 27-year-old Alexander Piñon, who died suddenly on May 19, 2025, in Santa Clara. His parents, Raymundo Llanes and Dolores Piñon Llanes, paid the home $10,454.34 for a full-service memorial package.
According to legal filings, the family specifically asked funeral director Anita Singh not to dress Alexander in the clothes he died in, wishing for him to be buried in a nicer outfit. On June 4, 2025, Mr Llanes went to collect his son's clothing. He was handed a red biohazard bag.
Unaware of the contents, he took the bag home and emptied it into a washing machine. It was then he noticed an unusual substance. The lawsuit states this material was later identified as human brain matter.
Alleged Cover-Up and Ongoing Distress
"At that point, they had no idea that it was their son's brain that was in the washing machine," the family's attorney, Samer Habbas, told local media. "They didn't know if it was mixed up with somebody else's brain."
Shaken, Mr Llanes contacted Ms Singh, who instructed him to return the bag to the funeral home. He did so the same day, reportedly receiving no explanation and still not getting his son's clothing. The funeral proceeded the next day.
The lawsuit details that more than a month later, a funeral home employee contacted the family to reveal the bag had contained their son's brain. The employee claimed that after it was returned, Ms Singh placed the organ in a box and left it in a courtyard for two-and-a-half months, where it began to decompose.
Legal Action and Lasting Trauma
"Errors can happen. But what cannot happen is that you cover up your errors, and that's what the funeral home has done here," Attorney Habbas stated. The family is now pursuing legal action.
When approached for comment, a spokesperson for Service Corporation International (SCI), which owns the funeral home, said, "Due to active litigation, we won't be commenting on this matter." Attempts by reporters to speak to Ms Singh were unsuccessful; an employee said she was no longer with the company.
The Piñon family now faces the additional trauma of planning to have Alexander's brain reunited with his buried body. "It's something that they're never gonna forget, it's something they're gonna have to live with forever," Habbas said of the family's enduring suffering.
