‘Is your loved one really where you believe they are?': A cemetery investigation

It’s hard enough having to say goodbye to a loved one, but NBC CT Responds spoke to families who say the pain persists when that loved one is not in their final resting place.

Just ask Adrienne Porzycki of Southington.

She reached out to our consumer team after her family says they learned her father’s casket was moved to a different spot after his burial.

Unknowingly, her family had been visiting his original burial spot for 16 months.

Porzycki said she took this photo after her father Albert O’Quinn’s burial in March of 2023 at the Springfield Street Cemetery in Agawam, Massachusetts, just over the Connecticut border.

She said this was the spot her mother chose and purchased for him.

Porzycki said her family frustratingly waited for 16 months for the foundation to be laid for O’Quinn’s headstone to be placed.

When that was finally in place, the family said they learned it was in a different location than the burial.

That’s when they knew there was a big problem.

Never communicated to the family. Never got approval to do so. Moved a casket. Moved a body. When we found that out, my mom essentially requested that he moved back to what we thought was his final resting place.

Adrienne Porzycki

After the family reached out, Art Hastings, the president of the Feeding Hills Cemetery Association which runs the cemetery, sent this text to the family this summer, admitting: “This was where the body was buried,” referring to the picture Porzycki previously sent him of her father’s burial.

His text went on to say, “but that was the incorrect grave” and “it was corrected.”

Hastings continues to say the casket was moved to a plot 16 to 20 feet farther away than the spot where her family had been visiting for a year and a half.

He said the new location was the grave “you purchased as opposed to the incorrect one that was dug at the time of the initial burial.”

“It was essentially explained in a text message as ‘Oops.’ None of this has been handled appropriately and I think something’s got to give,” Porzycki said, reiterating her mother specifically picked the plot where O’Quinn’s burial was held a year and a half ago.  

NBC CT Responds discovered a permit was never filed to move O’Quinn’s casket the first time.

We were there in September when it was brought back to its original burial spot.

A permit was pulled for that disinterment, as is required by law to move a body.

“It’s been a year and a half of sort of a bit of a disaster, unable to sort of have my father truly rest in peace,” Porzycki said.

While we were at the cemetery that September day, NBC CT Responds ran into another family who said their loved one was buried in the wrong spot in the cemetery.

We confirmed with the groundskeeper on site that their loved one’s casket was also moved that day to her family’s intended plot, yet the family showed us that their headstone was in a different location than both those plots, on the opposite side of the cemetery on recently disturbed ground.

These families aren’t alone in their frustration. NBC CT Responds has heard from five others who’ve had problems with the cemetery, like Nicole Hammerle.

Six months after Hammerle’s mother’s urn was buried here in 2018, she decided it would be more comforting to have her ashes at home.

“I wanted to inquire about getting the urn back and he said we have no record of burying your mother. I was like, ‘OK, I have a deed, I have a receipt for buying the plot. I have everything,’” said Hammerle, of Agawam, MA.

She said she got a call back hours later that her urn was discovered when digging another grave. It had been buried in the wrong spot.

“So, I said, ‘Where’s this urn now? That’s my mother,’ and he said, ‘It’s in the contractor’s garage,’” Hammerle said.

Art Hastings and his brother took over the Feeding Hills Cemetery from their father in 2019, according to business filings.

We reached out to Art, the president of the nonprofit, about the O’Quinn family’s frustrating situation.

In a statement, he said, “There was a transition of management a few years ago and we have had some difficulties with the transition. We are continuing our efforts to improve the services that we provide. We are training new staff to provide faster responses and quicker service.”

The brothers have been the only paid employees, making about $9,000 a year, according to the latest available tax filings (2021 and 2022).

Hastings did not respond to our other questions.

“I can’t even imagine how many loved ones have been moved. How many bodies have been shifted? Is your loved one really where you believe they are?” Porzycki said.

The International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association (ICCFA) tells NBC CT Responds human errors happen but should never be rectified without a family’s permission.

The association suggests these tips to consumers: preplan your burial ahead of time when no emotion is involved and do your research.

The ICCFA said look at online reviews about the cemetery, make phone calls and ask to take a tour of the cemetery, too.