Arab-American Woman Sues Cemetery after Someone is Buried in Her Father's Plot

posted on: Oct 3, 2011

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The Charara family bought four burial plots to guarantee they would all share a final resting place.

Mahassen Charara was the first to pass on fifteen years ago. After his wife’s death Abdul Charara moved back to his native Lebanon.

When her daughter Waad visited her gravesite at United Memorial Cemetery in Plymouth six months ago, Waad was shocked to see someone had been buried in the plot reserved for her father.

“They put someone in the wrong grave that was supposed to be for my father,” says Waad.

On Wednesday Waad got another awful surprise at the graves ite. A marker has been put on the plot where a stranger lies. The deceased man happens to also have the last name of Charara.

Waad insists it is no simple mix up. She says she informed the cemetery long before the marker was installed that the buried stranger was in her father’s plot.

Waad is suing the cemetery and its attorneys will depose her Thursday.

In addition to the emotional and legal issues there are religious considerations as well.

Waad and her family are Muslim and so is the deceased man and his relatives. Waad’s attorney Tarek Beydoun tells Action News removing the man’s body could be considered a sacrilege.

Waad says the deceased man is suffering and that knowledge is devastating.

United Memorial is managed by Midwest Memorial Group in Beverly Hills. Their spokesperson is out of town and we have been unable to get a comment.

Val Clark
WXYZ