WRAL Investigates is asking questions about North Carolina's cemetery oversight after a Wake County family said a stranger's remains were buried in a plot they purchased burial rights for more than a decade ago.
The Greene family always considered themselves close-knit. So much so, they planned far ahead to ensure being buried side-by-side upon passing.
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That's before they discovered that someone else's remains were buried in a plot they purchased more than a decade ago, and the interment rights for another space they purchased allegedly belong to another family as well.
“I'm very disappointed of where it is now, and it makes me really afraid of other widows like me," Beth Greene says.
Burial mix-up leaves family questioning cemetery oversight
In 2013, Beth and her two daughters Lydia and Sarah purchased interment rights at Montlawn Memorial Park in Raleigh. They wanted to rest beside Beth's husband and Sarah and Lydia's father.
More than a decade passed and upon a visit to the father's gravesite in 2024, the Greene's discovered a mix-up: the remains of another person seemingly buried in one of the plots they previously purchased.
"They [Montlawn] blamed it on faulty maps that they had, and that it was done in error," Lydia said.
The Greene family later learned that a cremated person was buried in one of the spaces they bought for the daughters. Through talking with the family of that buried individual, they learned the individual that was moved into the Greene's plot was placed there because another person-- separate from either family-- was buried in the plot the other family purchased for themselves, too.
Beth described their relationship with the other family involved as cordial, as both parties are unsure about what to do moving forward.
“We have met three times to discuss what happened. We are not angry at that widow because she was not told that it belonged to someone else," Beth said.
Separately, there is confusion over the second plot purchased by the Greene family, but for a different reason.
They say the cemetery informed them that, as a result of a record-keeping error, the plot number they originally purchased was not in the spot they originally thought it was in. They learned a different family, separate from those connected to the other plot, owns the burial rights for the space they believed to have purchased.
Email copies provided by the Greene family between them and the cemetery reflect Montlawn staff acknowledging the mistake. The two sides worked for several months to reach an acceptable resolution; however, progress eventually stalled, and the Greene family said they have not heard from Montlawn staff or its ownership since 2025.
"We don't really know what the resolution may look like at this point, but our biggest reason for coming here is because we don't want this to continue to happen to other people," Lydia said.
"A sense of need to kind of see what can be done to make sure that it doesn't continue to happen, for some accountability."
Burial in the wrong plot? Not the first time
This is not the first time WRAL News has learned about a situation like this at Montlawn Memorial Park.
In 2019, a Garner man was exhumed after a gravesite had been double-sold. In that case, the original deed owners of a purchased plot actually petitioned a court to have Kizzie Sewell's husband, Winfred Barnes, moved. He died of a heart attack at work on Christmas Eve in 2014.
Barnes' body was dug up from the spot where he had been buried five years previously.
The cemetery called Sewell and told her they had mistakenly sold the plot where her husband was interred to someone else -- and that customer had started paying for the plot in installments six months before Barnes was buried there.
At the time, a spokesperson for the funeral home issued a written statement to WRAL News:
"Montlawn Memorial Park's mission is to help families memorialize every life with dignity, including providing and maintaining a tranquil and beautiful place for memorialization. This is an unfortunate episode and we worked diligently with the families involved in order to reach an acceptable solution. The matter was eventually decided by a court order and we are abiding by the court's decision. We want to reassure our families and the local community that we are committed to serving them and their loved ones."
History of attorney general complaints at cemetery
WRAL requested records from the office of North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson.
The request revealed eight consumer complaints against Montlawn since 2020. One of those, WRAL found, was the Greene family's 170-page consumer complaint.
Among the seven other records received, none contained the same dilemma that the Greene family is experiencing.
They did, however, reveal several other consumer concerns related to billing complications with the cemetery as well as mistakes with markers. Problems with markers range from incorrect grave placements to missing date-of-death records.
Who owns Montlawn? Complaints, bad reviews for corporate cemetery company Everstory Partners
Montlawn Memorial Park is owned by Everstory Partners, a Florida-based company that owns more than 400 cemeteries across the country.
The company owns cemeteries in 23 states as well as Puerto Rico. It owns and operates 58 operations in North Carolina, the second-highest total for all states just behind Pennsylvania.
A review of Better Business Bureau data reveals both negative complaints and reviews lodged against the company. Many customers have submitted complaints noting poor management experiences at their respective cemeteries. Some comments also allude to people being buried in incorrect plots.
WRAL News requested a sit-down interview with Montlawn's management or a company representative from Everstory.
They provided the following statement regarding the Greene family matter:
"We strive to ensure the families we serve have the comfort, compassion, and dignity they deserve, and we work with any families where those expectations were not met at any time. Out of respect for their privacy, we do not publicly discuss any specific situations. We are aware of the issue and will continue to work with the impacted families to find a resolution."
When asked, Beth Greene says that they haven't heard from a company or cemetery representative since last summer.