Daytona Beach mother distraught after daughter's casket removed days after burial

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla - A pair of families are seeking answers after learning their deceased loved one’s caskets were removed from their gravesites, days after burial.

Pamela Hall’s daughter, 53-year-old Eleecia Smith died a sudden death in January. Three days after her funeral service was carried out, Hall said she returned to the grave at Greenwood Cemetery in Daytona Beach, to find her daughter’s casket on the ground. 

She said another family was there, and they too found their loved ones’ caskets had been dug up, days after the burial. The families believe the caskets were placed in the wrong spots initially, and the process they witnessed was the switching of the caskets to their proper plots.

The two plots are just feet away from one another. Hall said she was not offered an explanation from cemetery management. She said the people in charge left shortly after she approached them. She added she hasn't been able to get in touch with them since.

"It’s heart-breaking. It’s heart-wrenching. I’m traumatized [by] this," Hall said. "Why wasn’t I notified? If there was a problem. If something was wrong."

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FOX 35 News gave several calls to the cemetery's listed number and knocked on the office door on the property, without an answer.

"It’s like a dream," she said. "I don’t want to believe this, but it did happen."

As Pamela looks to figure out what happened and why, she has help from attorney Raquel Levy, with Atlantic Law Center. 

"They can’t undo what was done, but they could try to make things right," she said. Levy is working the case pro bono. She has issued a list of requirements for the Greenwood management team. "My client is already traumatized. She's already undergone undue stress. They could've just called and said there's a mix-up."

If those requirements aren’t met in a timely manner, Levy said they will file a lawsuit.

Hall said she is struggling to deal with the emotions of losing her daughter, combined with the trauma caused by last month’s discovery. She tells FOX 35, that as she continues to search for answers, her daughter will be remembered in a positive light.

"[She was the] sweetest person, helpful, just kind to everybody," Hall said.