DNA tests will be conducted on a New Jersey woman's remains, after the funeral home where she was being held allegedly put another person's body inside a casket meant for her.
Margaret Porkka died suddenly in St. Maarten, according to a report by NBC affiliate KPVI 6. Her body was prepared and held in the Caribbean island nation.
But when daughter Lisa Kondvar of Warwick, R.I. and her family viewed the body, they were shocked to find someone else inside the casket.
According to KPVI 6, family members had a hunch that employees at the funeral home mixed Porkka's body up with a Canadian woman's. Kondvar told the Canadian Press that she suspected her mother's body was transferred to Ottawa and cremated by mistake.
The St. Maarten government has now sent a crew of health inspectors to investigate the case; the same officials have also been tasked with testing some body fluids that were recovered from the casket that could have held Porkka's body.
Director of the Emerald Funeral Home Orlando Vanterpool said he brought both the bodies, which were held in identical air trays, to the airport on the same day.
"To my knowledge, we sent the correct human remains," he told the Canadian Press. "Everything was regulated with the government. All the paperwork was in order, but apparently somewhere, somehow, something happened."
Vanterpool said he'd provide a full refund to the family if the DNA tests proved Emerald Funeral Home mixed up the two bodies.
