What Deathcare Can Learn from the Tragic Discovery in an Alabama Funeral Home Hearse

On the morning of Saturday, August 9, 2025, staff at West Gadsden Funeral Home in Gadsden, Alabama returned from a call and noticed what first appeared to be a doll in the back of a parked hearse. When they opened the door, they realized it was a real child, not in a casket. 

Police quickly treated the scene as a homicide. Within roughly 12 hours, Gadsden police arrested the child’s mother, 29-year-old Terica Pearl and identified the little girl as one-year-old Blessence. Pearl is being held without bond and is charged with capital murder of a person under 14. Court records cited by local outlets allege the child was strangled with a thick “robe string.” The investigation remains active.

Kindness amid the pain

It goes without saying that this event not only traumatized the baby’s family and the community at large, but the employees of West Gadsden Funeral Home have been especially affected.

“My heart is broken, my heart goes out to this family,” said West Gadsden’s owner/director, Dantez Robinson, at a community vigil hosted by the funeral home the evening after the discovery. “We are servicing this family, we are so sad that this happened.” 

The employee who found the child, who was not identified, has described the personal impact plainly: “I’ve got four girls of my own… I’m the one that found her… I couldn’t even work yesterday because that could’ve been one of ours.” 

Lessons learned

The overall response of the West Gadsden team has been admirable. In addition to hosting the well-attended community vigil, the firm announced it would provide services to the family at no charge. They have also done a great job managing their interactions with the media and law enforcement. Although no funeral home should ever have to go through such a horrible experience, deathcare can learn some valuable lessons from the incident.

For example, West Gadsden addressed the community with a vigil, concise statements of sorrow, and clear cooperation with authorities. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to coach your own team members on crisis communications. You could identify a single spokesperson, avoid speculation, and keep simple, scripted statements on file. “We are cooperating with law enforcement, our hearts are with the family, and we will share verified information as appropriate” are all great suggestions.

Another prudent step to prepare for employee impacts would be to prepare a critical-incident protocol that might include immediate relief from duty, access to peer support or an EAP counselor within 24 hours, optional group debriefing, and flexible scheduling for those directly affected.

You can also learn from the conditions that led to this funeral home’s involvement — namely, the mother’s ability to access the firm’s hearse. Audit whether doors remain locked whenever unattended; consider locked, fenced parking or interior bays; add motion-activated lighting and cameras; and ensure a single, documented key control process for all fleet vehicles. 

A true tragedy

There is no way to make sense of a loss like this, and even a week later an entire community is struggling to cope with the aftermath. What deathcare professionals can do, though, is protect your premises and care for your teams. West Gadsden’s staff did the right first thing: they looked closer, called immediately, cooperated fully, and then showed up for the community.

The Serenity Funeral Home in Berwick, Nova Scotia. Source: Google Maps.

A funeral board in Nova Scotia has decided to tighten rules after a woman was accidentally cremated during a tragic mixup of bodies.

The Nova Scotia Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors also decided to revoke the licence of funeral director David Farmer, who was was responsible for mistakenly cremating the body of  65-year-old Sandra Bennett.

To make matters worse, the body of 96-year-old Myrtle Wilson was embalmed and presented as Bennett during a family visitation last Dec. 27, which shocked the family.

Bennett’s sister, Carolyn Dominey, said the family planned to have an open casket service, but when they looked inside, they saw the body of another woman dressed in Bennett’s clothing.

“I was shocked,” Dominey told reporter Aly Thomson of The Canadian Press. “It’s like they degraded my sister’s body against her wishes.”

Dominey and her daughter, JoAnne, said staff at the Serenity Funeral Home in Berwick, N.S., insisted the woman in the casket was Bennett. When they realized it wasn’t, the family says they were presented with another body in the casket purchased by Bennett’s husband, Gary. It wasn’t Bennett.

The family was then told that Bennett had been mistakenly cremated.

Geoff MacLellan, the Nova Scotia cabinet minister responsible for issuing licences to funeral homes, earlier called the funeral home’s mistake unacceptable.

“Losing somebody and a death in the family is the hardest thing you’ll go through. It takes every bit of your strength mentally, emotionally and physically just to deal with the process,” he told The Canadian Press.

“To have this happen and impact these families in this way is tragic, it’s devastating, and quite frankly from the government’s perspective, it’s unacceptable.”

MacLellan ordered an investigation, which concluded earlier this month that the funeral director made the mistake so his licence was revoked.

The funeral board also asked the province to require all funeral home staff to identify a body before it’s transported, and called for fines similar to other jurisdictions (including British Columbia) and recommended more open hearings for professional misconduct.

MacLellan responded to the report by saying he hopes to bring in legislative changes soon.

“We’re going to get working immediately on the legislative piece and any other regulatory aspects so we’ve fully implemented what they (the board) have asked us to do,” he said.

In B.C., there are laws protecting consumers when purchasing funeral services. Those consumer rights are available online.

One of the laws protecting consumers is that funeral homes must present a price list to customers for funeral services

Consumer Protection BC also investigates complaints against funeral service providers and takes enforcement action when service providers are not in compliance.