Kimberly Moore’s family says her remains are still unaccounted for after a funeral home acknowledged a mix-up and began an internal review.
DETROIT, Mich. — A Detroit woman expecting to see her late mother one final time before a funeral instead discovered that another woman was lying in the casket, according to the family, which says it is still seeking answers about what happened to Kimberly Moore’s remains.
Bianca Robinson said she went to Hutchinson Funeral Home on Friday before a planned viewing and realized the body presented to the family was not her mother. Robinson said she noticed a physical feature she knew should have been present was missing. She said a funeral home representative then told her that her mother may have been cremated earlier. The family says it has not received ashes it can confirm belong to Moore.
“We need answers,” Robinson told WXYZ. She said the discovery has added uncertainty and distress to a time when the family expected to be mourning Moore and preparing to say goodbye. The family proceeded with a memorial service Saturday despite not having Moore’s body or confirmed ashes present.
Moore had made arrangements intended to ease the burden of her funeral on her family, relatives said. Instead, her children and other relatives were left trying to determine where her remains were and how another woman could have been presented to them as Moore. Available reporting has not established the identity of the woman who was mistakenly placed in the casket.
Robinson said the family’s concern also extends to the relatives of the unidentified woman. If the body in the casket belonged to another family’s loved one, that family could also be affected by the apparent identification error. No information identifying that woman or explaining what happened to her remains had been publicly released in the reports reviewed.
Hutchinson Funeral Home acknowledged that Moore’s family experienced a mix-up and apologized. In a statement, the funeral home said it was “heartbroken and deeply sorry” about the family’s experience and had begun an internal review to determine what happened. The statement did not publicly provide a detailed account of how the error occurred or establish the location of Moore’s remains.
The family’s central question remains whether Moore was cremated and, if so, what happened to her ashes. Robinson said the family did not have ashes that it could verify as Moore’s. Reports about the case attributed the belief that Moore had been cremated to what the family says it was told at the funeral home; publicly available information reviewed for this story does not independently establish the identity of remains that may have been cremated.
The uncertainty has complicated the family’s ability to grieve. Moore’s cousin Geraldine Carr traveled from Alabama to Detroit to support the family. Carr said Moore’s children were devastated by being unable to say goodbye in the way they expected. Family members remembered Moore as loving, funny and outspoken.
The funeral home’s internal review is expected to focus on how the apparent identification error occurred, but its statement did not announce when that review would be completed. The available reports also did not identify an independent investigation or provide documentation conclusively establishing where Moore’s remains are.
For Moore’s family, the matter remains unresolved. They are seeking confirmation of what happened to her body and answers about the identity of the woman they encountered at the funeral home. Hutchinson Funeral Home has apologized and said it is reviewing the incident, while the location and confirmed status of Moore’s remains had not been publicly established.
Author note: Last updated September 25, 2026.