Parents were given their deceased son's brain by funeral homes, lawsuit
alleges
[July 26, 2025]
By JESSE BEDAYN
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's
brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on
the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit
filed this week.
The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a
news conference Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other
memories of a “good young man," their son, Timothy Garlington.
“It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled
death," he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey
Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears.
After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped
from one funeral home in Georgia to another in Pennsylvania, where they
picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained
an unlabeled red box.
At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler couldn't open the red box, said
the Butlers' attorney, L. Chris Stewart, at the news conference.
Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to
smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up,
the fluid covered his hands, “which was brain matter. It's insane,"
Stewart said.
When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations &
Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and
some mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box
to Nix & Nix, he said.
The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to
comment when contacted by the AP.
“The parents last memory is holding their son’s brain,” said Stewart in
an interview with The Associated Press.
“I had to get rid of that car,” Lawrence Butler said, “I just couldn’t
stand the idea that the remains were in that car.”
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The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled
human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted
emotional distress.
Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no
point in the process is the brain "separated from body in that
fashion and shipped in that fashion.” If it ever is, he said, then
it is in a sealed bag and labeled biohazardous.
Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart
alleges, they shouldn't have handed the box over to the Butlers
because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern
Cremations.
Julian Nix, the manager of the titular funeral home, told the AP
that “it was definitely not our fault” because Southern Cremations
had sent them the unlabeled box.
Nix said they reported it to authorities once they learned what was
inside. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing
funeral homes that found they weren't responsible, he said, but the
documents proving that weren't yet available.
The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong.
They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning, so that similar
incidents won't happen again.
Garlington, a veteran of the U.S. Marines who was working in
financial aid for schools, has since been buried in Washington
Crossing National Cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how
Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still don't know whether
Garlington's brain was buried with the rest of him.
“They fear, which is totally understandable: Is he resting in
peace?” he said.
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