Funeral home delivered wrong body to family in Central America, lawsuit claims

By Madisen Keavy

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    SACRAMENTO, California (KOVR/KMAX) — A Sacramento funeral home is accused of shipping the wrong body to a family in Central America, according to a new lawsuit filed this week.

The family of Francisco Quintanilla is suing La Paz Funeral Services in Sacramento for negligence and emotional distress for the mix-up, which led to Quintanilla’s remains being misplaced, court documents allege, for nearly two weeks.

Quintanilla was born in Santa Tecla, El Salvador, and came to Sacramento in the aftermath of the El Salvadoran Civil War where he got permanent citizenship and stayed to work to provide for his family.

Along with his wife of 50 years, the couple had three children, who all stayed in El Salvador. He sent money back to his family from his work in Sacramento.

Quintanilla died in November 2024 and his family contacted La Paz Funeral Services in Sacramento to arrange bringing his remains back to El Salvador. They planned a traditional funeral which included an open casket, which is El Salvadoran tradition.

On the day of the funeral, his family opened the casket to find the body of a stranger inside. Court documents outline that when they contacted La Paz they were, “…told to bring the stranger’s body back to the airport. La Paz did not know the whereabouts of Francisco’s remains.”

“The family was shocked and heartbroken,” according to the lawsuit.

For “days and days” the family did not know where Quintanilla’s remains were located. Two weeks later, after the original funeral, Quintanilla’s family was told La Paz found his remains and they were shipped to El Salvador.

When the family opened the casket, Quintanilla’s remains were in a “shocking state of decomposition”, according to the lawsuit, that included, “his skin had turned purple and was shriveled, his body was leaking fluids that soaked his clothing, and a horrible smell was emitting from the casket.”

The lawsuit accuses La Paz of not properly embalming the remains and that the body was left unrefrigerated for a prolonged period, court documents allege. Due to the condition of his remains, the family was unable to hold an open-casket funeral.

“Our family planned to have an open casket service and to honor Francisco and say goodbye in El Salvadoran tradition. What happened instead was shocking and heartbreaking. Our final memory of Francisco is one we wish we could forget,” Quintanilla’s wife said in a statement to CBS13.

The lawsuit accuses La Paz of failings including sending the wrong body; delaying the proper shipment; mishandling Francisco’s remains, resulting in decomposition and an unviewable body; failing to properly embalm and preserve Francisco’s body; mishandling transportation and storage of the body.

“The family didn’t get answers, and part of the reason they wanted to file this lawsuit was to get those answers,” said Rob Marcerau, the family’s attorney in this case.

CBS13 contacted La Paz Funeral Services, and its owner, about this lawsuit and the claims, but did not receive a statement on Wednesday. The funeral home’s attorney did confirm to CBS13 La Paz Funeral Services is still in business.

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