Seven Minutes in Chicago; a $16 Million Lawsuit Over the Wrong Body; Death Claims on the Living; Greiner Points to a January 2027 Jury Trial

On May 28, 2026, a family arrived at R.G. Ortiz Funeral Home in Washington Heights for a wake. The man in the coffin was not their father. He had hair; their father was bald. He was much taller than the 5-foot-3 Jose Daniel Diaz Felipe, 84, and his complexion was different. The stranger was dressed in their father's clothes. The family spent four hours trying to persuade staff a mistake had been made, and removed the deceased man's shoes to prove it: Diaz Felipe had lost a toe to diabetes.

What the family learned later, according to the lawsuit, is that their father had already been cremated on May 23, five days before the scheduled wake. The complaint says the funeral home admitted the mistake after the service, telling the family it had two deceased men named "Jose Diaz" at the same time and mixed up the bodies. The summons and verified complaint were filed August 19, 2026, in Bronx County under index number 816374/2026E, demanding $16,396,000 in damages.

The operator was known to city regulators. R.G. Ortiz settled with the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection in 2024 for more than $700,000 over 82 charged violations: $604,000 in restitution and $100,000 in civil penalties. The firm has drawn 74 consumer complaints since 2018 and operates eight locations across the Bronx and Manhattan.

When a court decides a person cannot manage their own affairs, a guardian takes over the decisions, including the funeral. Two criminal cases from 2026, one resolved and one pending, show how little checking happens between the payment and the grave. In Michigan, Terry Alvin Kaufman collected prepaid funeral funds through the Huron County Public Guardian, the county office that manages money for people a judge has found cannot manage it themselves. Attorney General Dana Nessel's office said none of it was escrowed, and that over ten years Kaufman used it to pay his own salary.

Kaufman pleaded no contest in March 2026. In May, Judge Gerald M. Prill sentenced him to 7 to 20 years and ordered $1,111,165.77 in restitution to 204 identified victims. Some of those victims were wards of the state whose arrangements were handled through the guardian office. The office created to protect them became the channel he collected through.

In Tennessee, Mundy Funeral Home in Jamestown is accused in a different kind of theft: filing death claims with an insurer for people who were still alive, including individuals in a guardianship program. The board's legal representative said the fraudulent preneed claims exceeded $80,000, including approximately $17,840 tied to the guardianship program. No charges have been filed.

On August 11, 2026, the Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers summarily suspended the license of Mundy Funeral Home in Jamestown and the funeral director license of Chad Mundy. The board's legal representatives said the emergency action was needed "to protect the public's health, safety and welfare." A summary suspension takes effect before complaints are resolved: under it, Mundy cannot work as a funeral director and the funeral home cannot operate.

The case began with a July 22 audit of the funeral home's preneed records covering January 1, 2025 through June 30, 2026. The audit found three case files with no death certificate, 13 with no payment records from the insurance company, and 15 contracts with no documentation at all. Because the records were missing, an auditor asked Homesteaders Life Company, the insurer backing the preneed policies, for its payment documents. Those documents showed at least five policies with confirmed proof the claimed person was still alive. One claim was filed for Mundy's own wife, whom Homesteaders confirmed is alive.

Investigators believe approximately a dozen or more fraudulent death claims were filed, exceeding $80,000 in total: roughly $70,000 in fraudulent funds found by Homesteaders and about $17,840 tied to individuals in a guardianship program. No civil or criminal case had been filed as of August 26. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is involved.

Selected Independent Funeral Homes opens its Annual Meeting in Louisville, Kentucky, with the association's future unresolved. Members gather September 2 through 5 at the Omni Louisville, and member voting on the proposed combination with the National Funeral Directors Association will follow later this year, before any official agreement is signed. The boards announced the deal July 29 and have promoted it under the "Better Together" banner. NFDA's own FAQ states the structure in plainer terms: the transaction "would be structured as an acquisition of Selected Independent Funeral Homes by NFDA." If members approve, Selected would operate as a "designation" inside NFDA beginning in 2028, after a 2027 transition year.

The campaign has gone public, and the engagement numbers tell their own story. On August 21, trade publication Connecting Directors posted to Facebook about the two members leading opposition. As of August 29 it had drawn 35 reactions, 9 comments and 1 share. An earlier post that day linking the publication's interview with Selected President Barbara Risher Welch drew 14 reactions. Commenters on the opposition post identified themselves as committed no votes, and one reply described member firms across six states acting together.

Nathanael M. Billow and Paul C. St. Pierre, the sixth-generation members leading the opposition, repeat their central objection: members face a vote on a letter of intent that legal counsel for both organizations says is confidential and cannot be shared with them. Their poll of 70 firms found 85 percent lean no. A members-only town hall is scheduled for September 3.

The initial hearing in the criminal case against Gary G. Greiner, set for September 1 at 9:00 a.m. in Vigo Superior Court 1, was canceled on the court's own calendar on August 31, with the reason listed only as "Other." Judge Charles D. Johnson signed an order the same day setting the case for a further-proceedings hearing November 19, a final pretrial conference January 14, and a jury trial January 25, 2027.

The 37 counts, filed August 20 under Cause No. 84D01-2608-F5-003955, enumerate one count of corrupt business influence, a Level 5 felony; 21 counts of theft, each a Level 6 felony; and 15 counts of fraud on a financial institution, each a Level 5 felony. They rest on more than $552,000 in prepaid funeral payments, by the account of Vigo County Prosecutor Terry Modesitt. The docket moved fast in five days: August 27, Johnson set the initial hearing; August 28, defense counsel Michael Thomas Ellis filed a waiver of formal arraignment; August 31, the trial-setting order and the cancellation, the same day.

The counts span July 2014 to April 2025, and that span matters: it decides whether Indiana caps the available prison time at seven years or fourteen.