Restlawn Park and Mausoleum

The family of Shelton Guthrie Sr. says Restlawn Cemetery failed to bury him on property he purchased in 1973, according to a lawsuit filed in 24th Judicial District Court.(NOLA.com The Times-Picayune)The family of a West Bank man who died in January is suing Restlawn Park Cemetery because it can't specify where it buried him. Relatives allege the Avondale cemetery was negligent when it decided to lay Sheldon Guthrie Sr. to rest outside their presence and in a plot other than the one he bought. Guthrie and his wife, Vivian Boudreaux Guthrie, bought two adjacent "lawn lots'' in 1973 in the cemetery's Garden of Honor off U.S. 90. The next year, they received a deed for the land, the lawsuit said.On Jan. 26, Guthrie died. After a Jan. 31 funeral at Mothe Funeral Home, according to the suit, a burial service took place at Restlawn -- but not at the grave site that the couple bought.When Guthrie's daughter, Sylvia Pearson Chagnard, returned to the cemetery Feb. 9 to buy a headstone, she learned her father had been buried elsewhere. The suit says cemetery staff told her that a tree prevented workers from digging at the assigned spot. The place where Guthrie was buried lacked an adjoining empty plot for his wife and appeared to be another man's gravesite as indicated by the headstone, according to the suit.The family thinks Guthrie's remains have been exhumed, moved and reburied "one or more times'' without their consent. Sheldon Guthrie Sr.  "To this day, they have been unable to confirm for themselves the whereabouts of their father's remains, instead having to rely upon representations made by Restlawn representatives who have been less than forthcoming and non-communicative with plaintiffs,'' the suit said. "There is a distinct possibility that the remains of Mr. Guthrie have been lost." The suit was filed in March in 24th Judicial District Court in Gretna. The case is assigned to Judge Danyelle Taylor.In addition to Guthrie's widow and daughter, other plaintiffs include sons S...

C. Reindl Detroit Free Press Published 8:55 AM EDT Jul 4, 2018 Michigan's economic development fund recently agreed to help finance the sale of a collection of cemeteries across the state, 28 of which, in previous years under previous owners, were involved in two major fraud schemes that swindled tens of millions of dollars from hundreds of victims. Yet since the Michigan Strategic Fund gave its preliminary approval June 26 for a $26.5-million tax-exempt bond issue for the cemeteries' would-be buyer, unreported details have emerged that throw the legitimacy of the deal into question. None of the 28 cemeteries, which include well-known Woodlawn in Detroit,  is actually for sale, the Free Press has learned, and the owner of the cemeteries says it hasn't even been approached by the Southfield-based religious nonprofit group that...