Family: Reserved cemetery plot filled with another body - NBC12.com - Richmond, VA News

A local family wants answers. They say their mother paid to be buried next to her husband, but when she died, the family got a shocker - someone was already buried in her spot!

This happened at Dinwiddie Memorial Park. The Sheriff's Office there confirms that the cemetery has had a troubled history that includes selling the same plot to two people. In the last three years though, the cemetery has been under new management.

Now, the family is suing the cemetery.

"My mother's always said that her space was taken care of," said William Lamonte Fields. "And then two days after her death I go to the cemetery to make the arrangements and they tell me that her space has already been sold to someone else."

The cemetery owner confirms that another body was buried next to Fields' father, and that the family headstone was moved from the center of the plots to the head of just one grave.

He went on to say that the family had no written proof the plot was ever paid for. The cemetery has changed hands several times between when Willie Fields (father) died and when Sarah Fields (mother) died.  The current owner says he's looked over the previous owners' records a number of times and there is no record that that plot was ever purchased, but he says if the family can provide a receipt, he would honor it 100%.

The owner says the Fields just have ea paper showing the plot was "reserved" but not paid for.

The Fields argue the cemetery wouldn't have approved the double headstone if the plot hadn't been purchased.

"To me, the only way to make this right is to have my mother and my father side by side where she wanted to be buried," said Fields.

The cemetery did offer to move Willie next to Sarah, but would charge the family "at cost" for the move.

A court date has not yet been set.

Copy of the lawsuit filed - link

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