Detroit family says wrong woman was prepared for mother’s funeral after suspected cremation error

A Detroit family says they discovered the wrong body prepared for their mother’s funeral, raising fears she was mistakenly cremated before the scheduled viewing.

A Detroit family preparing to say goodbye to their mother was confronted with a devastating discovery when the body presented for her viewing was not hers.

The family of Kimberlly Kaye Moore says they went to Hutchison Funeral Home ahead of her scheduled Sept. 18 viewing and found another woman dressed and prepared for the service. The discovery has raised the possibility that Moore’s remains were mistakenly cremated before her family had the opportunity to see her.

People reported that Moore’s children identified the apparent mix-up while preparing their mother for the viewing. Her daughter, Bianca Robinson, said she noticed a physical feature on the woman’s foot that did not match her mother.

Robinson told WXYZ that funeral home staff then suggested Moore may have been cremated after arriving at the facility alongside another woman. According to the family’s account, staff attributed the confusion to an identification tag that may have become wet and fallen off.

That explanation has not been established as the definitive cause of the mix-up. Hutchison Funeral Home is investigating, and local reporting has confirmed that the facility has launched an internal review.

Joseph Hutchison Jr., the funeral home’s vice president of operations, confirmed that the matter was under investigation. In a statement reported by ClickOnDetroit, the funeral home said it was “heartbroken and deeply sorry” for what Moore’s family had experienced and pledged to communicate with them during the review.

The situation became more tense as relatives gathered outside the funeral home. Detroit police were called to the location after the family protested, according to WXYZ’s reporting cited by People.

The family had planned to hold Moore’s viewing and funeral before cremating her remains afterward. Instead, they say they were left without the farewell they had arranged and without confirmation of where her remains were.

Moore’s obituary lists her as Kimberlly Kaye Moore, born Nov. 18, 1964, and died Sept. 3, 2026.

The family is now waiting for answers about how the apparent identification error occurred and what happened to Moore’s remains. Until the funeral home completes its review, key questions remain unresolved, including whether Moore was mistakenly cremated and how another woman came to be prepared for her scheduled viewing.