Answers Sought in Chehalis Body Switch

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Jerry D. Moon never wanted to be cremated. Robert Petitclerc didn't want to be buried.

Neither of the men got the final sendoff that they wanted.

Now, a Kelso funeral home is taking responsibility for cremating Moon while the state Department of Licensing has opened an investigation into the incident, which resulted in the wrong body being displayed at Moon’s funeral Monday in Chehalis.

Moon’s family has hired an attorney and are voicing their outrage over the mishap.

Ken Dahl, owner of the Dahl-McVicker funeral home in Kelso, told The Chronicle Wednesday that his business mistakenly cremated the body of Moon.

The 72-year-old Castle Rock man died Oct. 13 at Community Home Health Care & Hospice in the same general time frame as Petitclerc. Both men had been taken to Dahl McVicker Funeral Home at the same time.

After not commenting this week, Dahl said Wednesday he called Moon’s son, Brian Moon, Chehalis, to tell him his father was mistakenly cremated.

“I talked to the son. I talked to him the best I could,” Dahl said. “I told him I was sorry.”

Brian Moon said he received the phone call from Dahl on Monday.

“Sure enough my phone rang. He was very feathery and unsure,” Brian Moon said. “I asked, ‘Did you cremate my father?’ And he said, ‘Yes, I cremated your father.’ It was confirmed.”

Meanwhile, Petitclerc, the 97-year-old Kelso man scheduled to be cremated, was dressed in Moon’s clothes and placed in his casket for the funeral at Brown Mortuary Service Monday.

Funeral staff moved the flowers and opened the casket. Friends and family were shocked to find the body was not Moon’s. Word of the mishap slowly moved through the funeral home in whispers.

“That poor guy (in the casket) didn’t want any services or anything,” Brian Moon said. “That poor guy was dressed in my father’s clothes in front of hundreds of people.”

Petitclerc has since been cremated as scheduled, his step-daughter Becky Burns told The Chronicle Wednesday.

Petitclerc, a retired engineer, and his wife, Helen Petitclerc, moved to Kelso seven years ago from Northern California.

“It has opened up another tragic nightmare. You are trying to get over it and you can't,” Burns said. “I feel so bad for the other family too. You are just trying to get the grieving over with and then this happens. We feel fortunate that we can at least get Bob back.”

Brown Mortuary Manager Daniel LaPlaunt said Wednesday that his mortuary never actually had Moon's body.

He said a Brown Mortuary staff member traveled to the Dahl McVicker Funeral Home on Oct. 14 to retrieve Moon's body.

"At the funeral home, we were presented with an individual clearly marked with an ankle bracelet that said this was Mr. Moon," LaPlaunt said. "We brought this body back believing it to be Mr. Moon."



It wasn't.

Instead, Brown Mortuary was given the body of Petitclerc.

The family requested prior to the funeral to see the body, LaPlaunt said. The arrangements dictated that the casket be opened at the end of the funeral, which is when the mistake was discovered. LaPlaunt stressed that the body would never have been cremated or buried without a final confirmation from family.

In the future, LaPlaunt said Brown Mortuary and Sticklin Funeral Home, owned by the same company, will require confirmation prior to any services.

After the discovery of the wrong body, LaPlaunt personally called the state Department of Licensing to request an investigation, he said.

He then drove to Longview Monday where he was provided a set of cremated remains believed to be those of Moon.

Brian Moon said the family has not collected the remains from Brown Mortuary as they wait for final confirmation that the remains are indeed Moon’s.

LaPlaunt had been reluctant to identify Dahl McVicker Funeral Home as the culprit in the mix-up. He said Wednesday he was speaking out in hopes of countering incorrect information furthered in television news reports.

"We're trying to save our business here," he said, later adding, "We don't ever want to see this happen again to another family."

One fact in particular that LaPlaunt wants to refute is a report that there was a bag over Petitclerc's head when Moon's family looked at it Monday. It was actually a protective layer, he said, which is commonly used to protect the deceased.

Aside from that, LaPlaunt said he wants the public to know that Brown Mortuary was never in possession of Moon's body.

"We never cremated Mr. Moon. We had nothing to do with the cremation of Mr. Moon," he said. “We won't cremate or bury without positive identification.”

Greg Pang, CEO of Community Home Health Care & Hospice, said the center followed all of its procedures to identify Moon before he was removed and placed in the Kelso mortuary.

“We have very clear procedures here,” Pang said. “I see there has not been any deviation from our procedures. Once we release a body to the funeral home, it is their (responsibility) to prepare the remains for burial.”

Christine Anthony, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Licensing, said the department will specifically investigate whether the remains of the two men were properly identified, and if Brown Mortuary correctly followed the directions of the family. Properly identifying the remains and following the family’s directions are mandated by state law, Anthony said.

A timeframe for the investigation has not been determined.

If the cremated remains are Moon’s, they will be buried at Claquato Cemetery in Chehalis where a graveside memorial was canceled on Monday, according to family.

Moon was born and raised in Chehalis and worked as a Weyerhaeuser railroad conductor for 28 years until disabilities forced him into early retirement. He moved from Chehalis to Napavine and eventually settled in Castle Rock.

“My dad feared cremation and didn’t want any part of it,” Brian said. “He spent a lot of time and money and he wanted to be buried next to his father and mother.”