ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., May 11 John Harden Jr. died in St. Petersburg, Fla., in March but remains unburied because his mother can't pay $2,000 in burial fees.
His body remains in a refrigerated storage unit and will stay there until Judy Jacqueline Brown either pays Harmon Funeral Home $2,000 in burial costs, or gets the funeral home to drop the fees, the St. Petersburg Times reported.
Brown's attorney, Tom Carey, has filed a lawsuit in Pinellas County claiming that the business owes his client more than $15,000 in damages.
Carey said that at this point burying the body or releasing it would not be enough.
"The damage has already been done," he said. For as long as Brown lives, "anytime someone mentions her son's death, she'll have to think of refrigerators and lawsuits."
Copyright 2007 by UPI
