{"id":307462,"date":"2026-07-28T09:59:29","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:59:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307462\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T09:59:29","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T09:59:29","slug":"queens-family-believed-funeral-home-cremated-their-loved-one-by-mistake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/307462\/","title":{"rendered":"Queens family believed funeral home cremated their loved one by mistake"},"content":{"rendered":"

QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 A Queens family\u00a0is demanding answers\u00a0after they say a funeral\u00a0home mistakenly cremated\u00a0their 93-year-old\u00a0mother despite her\u00a0documented wish to\u00a0be buried.<\/p>\n

The family of\u00a0Euvy Rodney, who\u00a0died on July\u00a08, says they arranged\u00a0for her burial\u00a0through J. Foster\u00a0Phillips Funeral Home\u00a0in St. Albans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Instead, they believe\u00a0her body was\u00a0cremated and a box of ashes was returned to them.<\/p>\n

“We have lost\u00a0our mom twice,” daughter Christine Weever said. “We have lost\u00a0her in death,\u00a0and we have\u00a0lost her body.”<\/p>\n

The family gathered\u00a0outside the funeral\u00a0home on Linden\u00a0Boulevard as they\u00a0prepared for a\u00a0memorial service at the end of this\u00a0week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Relatives said Rodney’s\u00a0final wish was\u00a0to be buried in Guyana, where she was\u00a0born. They provided\u00a0a death certificate\u00a0that appeared to show burial was the next step, as a box for cremation was not checked.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Our mother was\u00a0so much more\u00a0than this tragedy,” said daughter Ramona\u00a0Rodney Park. The emotional toll\u00a0became\u00a0evident as Rodney’s youngest daughter broke\u00a0down while speaking with reporters.<\/p>\n

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The Rev. Kevin\u00a0McCall, who is\u00a0supporting the family, said\u00a0Rodney’s wishes were\u00a0clearly documented.<\/p>\n

“It says clearly burial\u00a0in Guyana,” McCall said. “They knew\u00a0it was not\u00a0supposed to be\u00a0cremation.”<\/p>\n

J. Foster Phillips\u00a0Funeral Home, founded\u00a0in 1929, declined to\u00a0comment when asked\u00a0about the family’s allegations. According\u00a0to New York\u00a0State, the business\u00a0is a licensed\u00a0funeral home.<\/p>\n

The family’s attorneys\u00a0are calling for\u00a0a state investigation\u00a0and say they\u00a0are preparing their own. They also plan to follow up with the crematory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The family says it had a follow-up meeting with the funeral home but has not had further communication.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Attorney John Elefterakis\u00a0said one of\u00a0Rodney’s daughters asked\u00a0a question he\u00a0could not answer:<\/p>\n

“How do we\u00a0know if the\u00a0ashes are even\u00a0my mother’s?” Elefterakis\u00a0said. “I can’t\u00a0comfort her with\u00a0an answer to\u00a0that question.”<\/p>\n

In 2017, the New York State Department of Health’s\u00a0Bureau of\u00a0Funeral Directing encouraged all funeral homes, hospitals and crematories in the state to review policies and procedures for handling and properly identifying human\u00a0remains.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Human remains mix-ups occur infrequently, but are highly emotional for all involved when they occur, often triggering litigation,” the state wrote after some reports in 2017 in New York.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

\u00a0For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to PIX11.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"QUEENS, N.Y. (PIX11) \u2014 A Queens family\u00a0is demanding answers\u00a0after they say a funeral\u00a0home mistakenly cremated\u00a0their 93-year-old\u00a0mother despite her\u00a0documented…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":307463,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[116307,41941,116309,9,24,63,122,124,123,116308],"class_list":["post-307462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-queens","tag-euvy-rodney","tag-funeral-home","tag-kevin-mccall","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-queens","tag-queens-headlines","tag-queens-news","tag-the-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}