A San Jose funeral home is accused of making a terrible mistake by improperly disposing of a body. A father filed a lawsuit claiming a funeral director gave him a bag containing his son’s clothes. After returning home, he realized the bag contained his son’s brain.
It is generally believed that no father should bury his son. But this San Jose family’s pain is compounded when a funeral director makes a horrific mistake.
The family of 27-year-old Alexander Pinon, who died on May 19, asked the I-Team not to report the cause or manner of death. They are struggling with the loss of loved ones and their experiences at the Lima Family Erickson Memorial Church on Willow Street in San Jose.
Alexandre Pinon
The family’s attorney, Samer Habbas, told the I-Team, “They want to do the right thing for their son, and they want to give him a dignified farewell.”
Habas filed the lawsuit on behalf of the family, saying they agreed to pay Lima a “full memorial tribute package” of more than $10,000. They also wanted to provide Alex with better clothes to wear at the funeral and asked the funeral director to return the clothes he was wearing when he died. The lawsuit alleges Anita Singer handed Alex’s father a bag; when he got home, he put it directly into the laundry room and threw the brain material into the washing machine.
“At the time, they had no idea that what was in the washing machine was their son’s brain,” Habas said. “They don’t know if it was mixed with someone else’s brain, if it was their son’s, they don’t have any idea.”
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Alex’s father scooped the brain out of the washing machine, put it back in the bag, and returned it to Anita Singer at the funeral home.
“Ms. Singh took the bag back from him. Never revealed whose brain it was, never provided information, never apologized and said, ‘I’ll take it from here,'” Habas said.
Alex was buried the next day at Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery. Weeks later, a whistleblower who worked at the funeral home came forward to confirm that Alex’s brain was in the bag, and after the confusion, funeral director Anita Singh placed it in a box outside the funeral home’s courtyard for two and a half months, the lawsuit says. Eventually, an employee discovered the box containing the bags and was “overwhelmed” by the “smell” of “rotting human brains.”
“Don’t get me wrong, mistakes happen,” Habas told the I-Team. “But what can’t happen, and shouldn’t happen, is you cover up your mistake, and that’s what the funeral home did here.”
Lima Family Funeral Homes introduced us to its owner, Service Corporation International, or SCI, the largest funeral services company in North America. They operate under the Dignity Memorial brand and promise reliable service.
Dignity’s promotional video says: “We need to get every detail right the first time. Every time.”
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SCI spokesman Christopher James sent an email to the I-Team’s Dan Noyes, “Due to ongoing litigation, we will not be commenting on this matter.” Our next stop was the Lima Family Church to find a funeral director. An office manager told me Anita Singh used to work here, but she was gone for two weeks.
Noyes met the funeral director when he got home and asked, “How could you give a father his son’s brain instead of a bag of clothes? Anita.”
Singer just took a step back.
“Do you have anything to say to your family?” Noyce asked.
The I-Team also arranged an interview with Alex Pinon’s parents, but they were too emotional and decided not to talk about their ordeal just yet. Meanwhile, their lawsuit continues to move forward and their attorneys are negotiating a plan to reunite Alex’s brain with other parts already buried in Oak Hill.
“We don’t know how much pain they will experience for the rest of their lives,” Habas said. “But I can tell you this is something they will never forget, this is something they will have to live with forever.”
The I-Team also reached out to the company’s attorney about the case; he did not respond. He has yet to respond to the lawsuit for more than two months.
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