Mortuary Mix-Up: Family Finds Stranger in Casket, Relative Collapses from Corpse Chaos| Crime Alert 8PM 10.28.2025

A family is suing a funeral home after the facility wheeled out the wrong corpse in a casket. The mortuary mix-up reportedly caused one relative to suffer a near-fatal heart attack at the service! 

A routine welfare check ends in a gun battle & a gruesome find. Plus, some sole searching crooks "Just Do it!" Jennifer Gould reports. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Alart hourly update, Breaking crime news Now. I'm Jennifer Gould.
A California family's day of morning turned into a catastrophic
medical emergency when the funeral home wheeled out the wrong
body for a memorial service, triggering a heart attack that
left an uncle fighting for his life. The devastating scene

(00:22):
unfolded for the family of Joey Espinoza, forty four, who
recently died of heart failure. Espinoza's aunt, Laura Lavarrio, was
the first to realize the mortuary mix up during the
memorial service at the prestigious Forest Lawn Covina Hills. She
spoke to KCBS two News, I noticed the body wasn't

(00:43):
my nephews, and the coffin that we picked out was it.
I'm thinking, like, what's going on. In a frantic bid
to resolve the horrifying error, attendance ushered the grieving group
to a nearby room, only to confront yet another unfamiliar
corpse in the second casket. Lavario lamented that the staff

(01:03):
told the family they quote didn't know where my nephew's
body was end quote. After over an hour of flubs,
the funeral home was eventually able to find Espinosa's body
and begin the service, but the upheaval and shock already
proved to be just too much. Amidst the chaos of
searching for their loved one, Lavarrio's husband, George, suffered a

(01:27):
medical episode. He had a heart attack and collapsed on
the cold chapel floor. George was rushed to the hospital,
where he woke up three days later on life support.
Adding egregious insult to injury, Forrest Lawn, a facility that
touts its spectacular grounds and significant artwork, claimed the mortifying

(01:49):
incident was merely a quote unquote scheduling error. Their solution,
the funeral home offered the family a mirror two hundred
dollars in compensation a staggering slap in the face, a
mirror one percent of the nearly twenty thousand dollars bill,
which the family swiftly rejected. The family's attorney, Elvis Trand,

(02:11):
confirmed they are now suing the mortuary for negligence and
severe emotional distress. The suit seeks unspecified damages for medical bills,
lost wages, and the psychological toll of what Tran calls
a quote preventable catastrophe end quote. Forest Lawn has multiple

(02:31):
locations throughout southern California. Funeral service packages at their Covina
Hills property range from under ten thousand dollars to eighteen thousand,
seven hundred and seventy five dollars. That's not including burial
and cemetery services. In a statement to City News Service,
Forest Lawn replied it does not comment on pending litigation.

(02:54):
More crime and Justice news. After this, the quiet calm
of a Georgia suburb was violently incinerated. A routine welfare
check devolved into a fatal gun battle, immediately followed by
the discovery of a woman's rotting body hidden inside the home.

(03:17):
The chilling double tragedy in Ackworth. Cherokee County has launched
a massive investigation to unravel the sequence of terror that
erupted at the Whisper Wood Trail residence. Captain J. Baker
with the Cherokee County Sheriff's Department spoke to the media.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Now, this is definitely unusual. We don't get many of
these deaths, and typically when there is a death's reported
immediately and that's the normal thing to do.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
Deputies arrived at six forty two pm responding to an
urgent call from friends who had not been able to
reach the resident for days. They received no plea for help,
but an instantaneous lethal ambush. An armed twenty six year
old man believed to be the woman's son, suddenly lunged
into view outside the front yard. Deputies, acting on a

(04:04):
split second decision, engaged the gunman, fatally shooting him at
the scene. According to Captain J. Baker, one deputy was
hurt in the chaos and rushed to Well Star Kenstone Hospital,
though he was treated and released later that night. As
the smoke cleared, a far more sinister stench, the undeniable
odor of decay, wafted from the open doorway. Venturing inside,

(04:27):
investigators made a gut wrenching discovery the body of an
adult woman, preliminarily idd as the slain man's mom, sprawled
in an advanced state of decomposition. Here's Captain Baker again.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
We don't know if he lived there, if he was visiting.
How long you been there? How long has she been deceased?

Speaker 1 (04:47):
The corpse was rushed to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's
crime Lab in Decatur for an urgent full autopsy. The
Sheriff's office is treating it as a homicide until forensic
results otherwise. Meanwhile, the GBI has taken the lead on
the officer involved shooting. The Names of the two deceased

(05:08):
remain withheld pending notification of family members who are reportedly abroad.
And finally, they just did it. Thieves pulled off a
heist right out of mission impossible in Florida, slicing through
a mall roof to grab a fifty thousand dollars sneaker jackpot.

(05:28):
The daring dash went down at the Treasure Coast Mall,
where a gang of professional crooks used power tools to
carve a gaping hole into the roof of a Champs
sports store. The goal around five hundred pairs of high
end kicks, including Nikes and New Balance. Officials confirmed the
thieves bagged the merch, tossed it off the roof, and

(05:50):
hauled it away in a getaway car. Investigators believe these
are organized criminals, no kidding, who were working overtime for
hours with detection soul mission accomplished if you will. The
guys wanted to lace up a huge profit, but they've
left a massive footprint out for detectives to follow, but
so far no arrests. For the latest crime and justice news,

(06:15):
follow the Crime Alert hourly update on your favorite podcast
app with this crime Alert. I'm Jennifer Gould.