State records show complaints about 'death care' business

Rick Anderson of the Seattle Weekly reviewed state files and revealed Washington consumer complaints about funeral homes and cemeteries. Consumers were "being 'penalized' by funeral homes for buying coffins elsewhere." There were "complaints about bodies buried in the wrong graves, cremated when they should have been planted, or occupying plots that have been resold" and "protests over misspelled headstones, mishandled remains, and high-pressure sales pitches by the industry's 'grief counselors.'" A sidebar tells the story of two teenage crime victims buried in the same grave, unbeknownst to parents, and another examines "low-cost, do-it-yourself, eco-conscious burial options."