A Stranger in the Family Plot: Federal Class Action Follows Burial Mix-Ups at Everstory-Linked NC Cemeteries

Two Wake Forest parents lost their son in March 2021 and buried his remains at Pine Forest Memorial Gardens, then bought two additional plots beside him so they could be buried at his feet. Four years later, on a gravesite visit, they found what appeared to be "another body" in the plot they owned next to their son, according to the lawsuit. A cemetery employee then "placed a rod in the ground and confirmed again that someone was buried there," the complaint states, in wording reported by WRAL.

That discovery is now a proposed federal class action. The case, Foster v. Pine Forest Memorial Gardens LLC, No. 5:26-cv-00620, sits before Judge Louise W. Flanagan in the Eastern District of North Carolina. WRAL identifies the cemetery company's corporate ownership as Everstory Partners, a Florida-based operator with more than 400 cemeteries across 23 states and Puerto Rico.

The pattern WRAL counts

WRAL counts the Pine Forest suit as at least the second such mix-up at Montlawn and the third involving an Everstory property.

In 2014, Kizzie Sewell paid $3,150 for a Montlawn gravesite after her husband, Winfred Barnes, died of a heart attack at work on Christmas Eve. He was buried Dec. 31, 2014. The plot had been double-sold; its original deed owners petitioned a court to move him, and he was exhumed in 2019 under a court order.

The second episode drew WRAL's original investigation. Beth Greene and her daughters had held interment rights at Montlawn since 2013, beside husband and father. On a 2024 visit they found a stranger's remains in one purchased plot. Montlawn "blamed it on faulty maps," per the family's account to WRAL. A record-keeping error also put a second plot's number in the wrong location; the rights belonged to another family. The Greenes filed a 170-page consumer complaint with the state Attorney General's office and say they have heard nothing from Montlawn or its ownership since 2025.

What the lawsuit alleges

Per WRAL's reading of the filings, the suit proceeds on five counts: intentional infliction of emotional distress, meaning severe distress caused by extreme conduct; breach of contract; negligence; unfair and deceptive trade practices, North Carolina's consumer protection statute; and common law fraud.

Defendants filed a notice of removal, the formal move from Wake County into federal court, on Aug. 28, 2026, three days before WRAL's first story on the Greene mix-up. An extension of time to answer was granted Aug. 31, and the case was selected for mediation that day.

Mediation here is routine scheduling, and the case keeps moving while it happens. The court's local rules automatically place civil suits of this type, contract and tort cases, into a mediated settlement conference: a meeting where a neutral third party tries to negotiate a settlement while the lawsuit proceeds. If the talks fail, the suit moves on toward trial.

In removing the case, defendants cited plaintiffs' counsel's statement that the class could include families of hundreds of decedents, per WRAL. That figure is an allegation; the court has certified no class, meaning no judge has yet decided whether the suit can proceed on behalf of all affected families or only the parents who filed it.

Sauder Schelkopf and Bochetto & Lentz represent the plaintiffs; neither firm is licensed in North Carolina. Poulin Willey Anastopoulo is local counsel.

Everstory told WRAL it strives to ensure families "have the comfort, compassion, and dignity they deserve" and does "not publicly discuss any specific situations." A spokesperson told WRAL it is "not commenting further on the pending litigation."

Regulators and the complaint files

Oversight in practice has run on consumer complaints. NC Cemetery Commission Executive Director Glenn Cutler confirmed 30 complaints against Montlawn since 2020 and no formal action. Commission President William Gaffney called the Greene situation the product of "mistakes and errors," deemed it "rare," and said no standard remedy exists. The commission withheld complaint copies, citing state code.

Records WRAL obtained from Attorney General Jeff Jackson's office show eight consumer complaints against Montlawn since 2020, citing billing complications and marker problems, from incorrect grave placements to missing date-of-death records. None of the other seven involved the dilemma the Greene family reported.

What it means

Both the Greene discovery and the Wake Forest parents' discovery began with a gravesite visit, years after the plots were sold. The failures WRAL documented, a double-sold grave and faulty maps, sat in the records behind every sale.

Outside the company, oversight amounts to two complaint files: 30 at the commission with no formal action, eight at the attorney general's office, one of them the Greenes' own. The lawsuit is the next test. It is live and in its opening phase: the defendants have not yet filed an answer, no class has been certified, and a court-ordered settlement conference is pending. What the mediation produces, a deal, a partial deal, or no deal, will shape whether hundreds of families ever get a day in court or only the two who filed.

What families can do

For plot holders, the options are narrow. Families can ask the operator to verify their deed, plot number, and map location against the cemetery's records; the Greene case shows both can be wrong at once. Complaints can go to the NC Cemetery Commission or the Attorney General's consumer office, which holds the Greenes' 170-page filing.

*Sources: WRAL, "Family sues NC cemetery operator alleging wrong person buried next to son," Sept. 1, 2026; WRAL investigation of the Greene family's Montlawn discovery, Aug. 31, 2026; WRAL follow-up on NC Cemetery Commission records and the 2019 Sewell exhumation, Sept. 2, 2026; CourtListener docket, Foster v. Pine Forest Memorial Gardens LLC, E.D.N.C. No. 5:26-cv-00620; Local ADR Rules, U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina, Rule 101.1a.