Sydney funeral mix up sees woman’s husband buried by wrong family

A grieving widow has been left horrified after discovering her husband’s body was buried by a different family after a Sydney funeral home mix up.

7News reports Despina Nicolopoulos was saying goodbye to her husband of 57 years in a funeral service at the St Euphemia Greek Orthodox Church in Bankstown last Friday when the devastating mistake was discovered. The service was almost over when the woman’s daughter opened the coffin to say her final goodbyes only to find the wrong body inside.

Despina told 7News her daughter turned to her and said “mum [this is] not my father”. A distraught Despina later found out Euro Funeral Services had sent her husband’s coffin to a different family and they had buried him two hours earlier.

Speaking on 2GB radio Wednesday morning, Euro Funeral Services director Spiro Haralambous said he takes full responsibility for the devastating mix up.

“If I could turn time back to prevent this trauma, naturally I would,” he told host Ben Fordham. “I am so sorry. I wouldn’t want this to happen to me. We need to be transparent with no spin-doctoring … and I’ll do everything I can to rectify this, less the trauma.”

The funeral director explained the two men had both died on the same day and were in identical coffins. The coffins each had a nameplate on the lid, but staff accidentally mixed them up.

“The drivers checked the lids, but of course, the wrong lid was on the wrong coffin,” he added.

This isn’t the first funeral mix up to make headlines in recent months. In August 2020, a shocking mix up occurred in a funeral home in Detroit, United States when a young woman was discovered to be alive and breathing despite being officially declared dead earlier in the day.

Staff at the funeral home called a Detroit emergency medical crew to the scene. WDIV-TV reported at the time that the woman was then taken to hospital to be treated.