A grief-stricken Oregon mother was left to watch their 20-year-old son’s grave be unearthed after a funeral home double-booked the grave site — an accident the family has called “unfathomable.”
Family and friends gathered at Skyline Memorial Gardens in Portland as Tyber Harrison’s grave was dug up Tuesday — all while his mother, Paula Tin Nyo, pleaded with the funeral home workers to stop, KOIN reported.
The mother had purchased a vault to hold her son’s baby teeth, hair and other mementos in 2021. Harrison had been hit and killed by a truck in 2016 while walking near the University of Central Florida, where he was a student.
However, the plot had already been sold in 2019 to Martin and Jane Reser for their son, Alex Reser, who struggled with addiction and died of an overdose at 30 that year, Oregon Live reported. He is interred nearby in the Reser’s family plot, the outlet reports.
“Paula and her kids will have to sadly process and go through this again,” Tin Nyo’s husband, David Williams, told KOIN.
Skyline Memorial Gardens admitted to the error, but said it had to honor the first purchase. The issue was fought in the courts, with the cemetery filing a lawsuit in 2023 seeking an order that would allow for Harrison’s removal.
Court papers showed that the funeral home offered to refund Tin Nyo’s $16,000 payment and rebury the vault a few feet away, but that she did not respond to them, Oregon Live reports.
Meanwhile, Tin Nyo filed a counterclaim seeking as much as $17 million. A Multnomah County civil jury found in December that while the funeral home was negligent, the accidental double-sale didn’t inflict “severe emotional distress.”
“I think the humanity, or lack of it, the cruelty, and someone feeling so entitled that they just wanted that piece of property when someone’s son is already in the ground was sort of unfathomable and she just didn’t know how to manage that,” Williams told KOIN.
“They didn’t think she would suffer. I can’t imagine anyone thinking that she wouldn’t suffer. I’m sad for those people that think this way,” he added through tears.
The funeral home noted in court papers that Tin Nyo was in breach of contract after adding cremains of her late son into the vault, which was not allowed, according to the reports.
Court documents also noted that the Reser family did not want to participate in the lawsuit, saying they were ordered to join the litigation brought forth by Skyline against their wishes.
In a statement, Skyline Memorial Park said, “Out of respect for the privacy of those we are honored to serve, we will not be commenting on this manner.”
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