DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Eleecia Smith was born at Halifax Hospital in Daytona Beach.
Fifty-two years later after a sudden death, her body was laid to rest yards away at Greenwood Cemetery.
Attorney Raquel Levy with the Atlantic Law Center is representing Smith’s mother, Pamela Hall.
“People are here in a state of depression, in a state of stoicism. This is the final resting place. Yet it wasn’t,” Levy said.
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Levy said that three days after Smith was buried, Hall returned to her grave to find something disturbing.
“Instead of coming and paying respects to her daughter’s grave, she finds the casket out of the ground, and no answers were given to her,” Levy said.
Levy believes if she didn’t see that with her own eyes, the cemetery operators would have never notified her.
“I think that’s horrible, and I think that that’s not fair to the family, that’s not fair to the community, and it’s disrespectful,” Levy said.
Levy sent the cemetery a notice on Jan. 31, requesting answers.
If she doesn’t receive a response by March 1, Levy said she will be filing a lawsuit on behalf of the family.
Levy learned Smith’s grave wasn’t the only one disturbed.
Her casket was swapped with Kevin James Jr., a soon-to-be father who died around the same time.
“This is not a small mistake to bury somebody in the wrong spot (and) pull them out, and had the family not found out, it’s entirely possible that the family would have been paying respects to a body that didn’t even belong to their family,” Levy said. “It’s unconscionable.”
Hall isn’t taking this well.
“My client feels absolutely horrible, she feels anxious, she feels depressed, she feels like her daughter is not at rest,” Levy said.
Levy said cemetery staff were there the day Smith’s mother found out but left without addressing the issue.
Daytona Beach police were notified. News 6 reporter Treasure Roberts reached out to ask if there’s an open investigation but hasn’t heard back yet.
She also reached out to cemetery operators, but they have yet to return any calls.
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