Trinity Funeral Service scandal
“The Funeral Home From Hell,” Trinity Funeral Service in Kinston, North Carolina, is responding to backlash after rolling out a deceased 77-year-old man on a gurney, with his head resting on a pillow with no case, as if he were fresh off the morgue table.
The deceased’s wife, Joyce Cannon, speaks out in a video statement, stating that her husband’s “viewing” was meant to be for immediate family only and that there was an agreement for her husband to be viewed on a “stretcher.”
This isn’t the first time Trinity Funeral Service has been the subject of controversy. Back in July, they made headlines after an open casket disaster involving a 36-year-old man being rolled to the altar, only for the coffin to flip over in front of mourners. (Click HERE to see that video.)
The funeral home never sat down together like a Sunday dinner to explain why the 36-year-old man’s casket flipped, but they are now responding to the recent allegations.
In a statement released on Trinity Funeral Home’s Facebook page, Mr. Sampson’s wife, Joyce Cannon, said she sat down with Sampson’s daughter and granddaughter to make funeral arrangements, stating that Sampson did not want a funeral but wished to be cremated.
“Because I knew he had other kids out of town, I said we’d do a viewing for the immediate family only… and that’s the way it was supposed to be,” Joyce said.
Joyce continued, explaining that because Sampson wanted to be cremated, she, along with Sampson’s daughter and granddaughter, agreed that he would be brought out on a stretcher for a private viewing restricted to the immediate family.
According to outraged witness Quarla Blackwell, she took shots at Joyce for allowing this indignity to happen.
“You guys and you women out here married to these people that y’all have been separated from all these years, you know what I’m saying, y’all better get a divorce, because these people are laying in their house feeling some type of way about you and are responsible for burying you,” Blackwell said.
Blackwell, with tears coming to her eyes, said she had never seen anything so disgraceful at a funeral service.
“Trinity Funeral Home, you need to be shut down—all the way down,” Blackwell said. “There’s no way I would’ve disrespected a family like that and brought their family member out there on a goddamn—yes, I said it just like that because I’m that mad—a f*****g gurney. A room full of people, and this hardworking man is out there on a f*****g gurney.”
Through teary eyes and disbelief, Blackwell added that she would’ve told the wife they couldn’t bring him out like that had she had any say.
“If that’s the best you can do, do nothing, Blackwell said.”
Reverend Mario Kilpatrick, Vice President and co-owner of Trinity Funeral Service, initially denied addressing the controversy or Blackwell.
She was legally his wife but they wasn’t together for 16 years. This should be a wake up call for those who are in this same situation. Get a divorce and spare your family heartache & pain if something happens to you. She showed no respect to him or the family. He wanted to be cremated but she could have easily rented a $200 casket. And yes he did have insurance but she paid cash up front.
Was there no Life insurance or Burial insurance?
This is some crazy shit man lmao