Mortuary Switched Remains, Suit Alleges

Whose body is lying in grave plot No. 555A? That is the $1-million question now pending before a Ventura County Superior Court judge, who is expected to rule today on whether to exhume the remains buried at Pierce Bros. Valley Oaks Memorial Park in Westlake Village.

The request comes after Thousand Oaks resident Lyndy Lutton-Ward sued Pierce Bros. mortuary for fraud, negligence and intentional deceit for allegedly switching her 82-year-old mother’s remains with the body of another woman.

Lutton-Ward charges that lab tests performed on locks of hair she requested as a keepsake proved the deceased was not her mother. She is seeking more than $1 million in damages. The lawsuit says that she has suffered nightmares, mental anguish and guilt over the alleged mishandling of her mother’s remains.

Pierce Bros. has denied Lutton-Ward’s allegations and recently filed a motion to disinter the body for purposes of identification. Attorneys hope dental tests will conclusively resolve the issue.

“We have no evidence other than Ms. Lutton’s claims to substantiate her allegations,” said attorney Kirk Wolden, who represents Pierce Bros. “We are certainly anxious to get the matter resolved.”

Superior Court Judge Glen Reiser is scheduled to rule on the motion this morning. Since it is not in dispute, the request is expected to be granted.

Attorneys on both sides have already lined up experts to conduct dental exams and, if necessary, DNA tests.

Lutton-Ward sued Pierce Bros. in December 1998, 11 months after her mother died of natural causes Jan. 4 at her Thousand Oaks home. According to the lawsuit, Pierce Bros. took Judith Lutton’s body to a mortuary on Wilbur Road in Thousand Oaks to be prepared for burial.

The lawsuit says Lutton-Ward told mortician Gary Mowery that her mother was to be interred in a grave alongside her father, Raymond, who died in 1992.

“Mr. Mowery assured [Lutton-Ward] that all of her instructions would be carried out and that her mother would in fact be buried with her father,” the lawsuit states.

When the family viewed the body before the Jan. 8 funeral services, they became concerned.

“When [Lutton-Ward] saw the woman in the casket presented by the defendant, it did not appear to be the body of her mother,” the lawsuit says.

The clothes did not appear to fit the deceased properly, and the shape of her nose and head seemed different, they said. Judith Lutton had platinum white hair. But the lawsuit states that the woman the family saw in the casket appeared to have “dark roots, yellowish hair and black hair around the temples.”

The daughter questioned mortuary officials, but was assured her mother was the woman in the casket. Lutton-Ward returned to Pierce Bros. the next day to raise questions again, but the lawsuit says Mowery explained that death can greatly alter a person’s appearance. He again assured her that the remains were those of her mother, according to the lawsuit.

Lutton-Ward had requested three locks of her mother’s hair as a keepsake. She sent them to a lab for testing, and learned they were not her mother’s, the lawsuit states.