Woman's Funeral On Hold After Funeral Home Goes Bankrupt

ATLANTA,None — An Atlanta woman's funeral has been postponed even though it was paid for years ago.

Evelyn Dabney turned 99 on Saturday, the same day she passed away.

Dabney had pre-paid her funeral with Sellers Brothers funeral home, which has since closed.

“I’m not coping, I’m not coping. I’m just taking one day at a time,” said Renita Owens. “It hurts to know that it ends like this.”

Owens is in a situation that she never anticipated. Owens said her great aunt, Evelyn Owens Dabney, spent more than $2,000 purchasing a pre-needs contract with Sellers Brothers funeral home back in 1985.

But what Dabney and her family didn’t realize is that three years ago the company went bankrupt and shut down.

“She trusted the people she gave her money to for her last rites and they’re letting her down right now,” Owens said. “I’m trying to get the money up to bury her, so she’s just lying in the funeral home waiting.”

“This is criminal what has taken place,” said bankruptcy trustee Neil Gordon, who is handling the case. He said more families may have a similar rude awakening.

“They paid this money in trust to this funeral home, business to be held for their needs or their family member’s needs when that time arrived,” Gordon said.

“And it wasn’t done. The money was spent, it was diverted. But it was never reported to the court, it was never reported to me and we do not know where it is,” Gordon said.

He said the funeral home owners did not place the pre-needs payments in proper separate secured accounts.

Owens just wants to give her aunt a proper burial in white just like she wanted.

She has to collect $3,500 for the funeral. Owens is about halfway there.

“Very stressful, I just don’t feel like I should be going through this,” Owens said.

Gordon said families who find themselves in this situation will have to file with bankruptcy court to try to recoup their money.

Juanita stone, the former owner of Sellers Brothers, said she will help Owens pay for her aunt’s funeral.

She also told Channel 2’s Eric Philips that her company did nothing wrong nor illegal.

WSBTV