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US family mistakenly receives bag of son's rotting brain instead of clothes, sues mortuary
The father of the deceased unknowingly emptied a bag of brain matter into the washing machine.
December 18, 2025, 06:51 PM
Warning: This article contains gore. Reader discretion is advised.
An American family was horrified after a funeral director in San Jose, California, allegedly handed them a bag containing their deceased son's brain instead of his clothes.
The father of Alexander Pinon has filed a lawsuit with the Lima Family Erickson Memorial Chapel in San Jose, reported ABC7 News.
Pinon, 27, passed on May 19, 2025, and his family wanted to provide him with better clothes during the burial service.
They requested that the funeral director swap the clothes on his body and return what he was wearing at the time of death.
The family paid more than US$10,000 (S$12,913) to give their son a "full service memorial tribute package".
Emptied bag containing son's brain in washing machine
ABC7 News quoted he family's attorney, Samer Habbas, stating that the Pinon family "wanted to do what's right for their son, and they wanted to have a dignified farewell for him."
An employee of the mortuary, Anita Singh, allegedly handed Pinon's father a bag stating that it was their son's clothes.
The father, believing the employee's words, went home and dumped whatever was in the bag straight into the washing machine.
Instead of laundry, out tumbled lumps of bloody brain matter, which the horrified father scooped out immediately.
He put the contents back into the bag and returned it to Singh at the funeral home.
Habbas said that at that point, the family "had no idea that it was their son's brain that was in the washing machine".
"They didn't know if it was mixed up with somebody else's brain, whether it was their son's, they had not a single idea."
Whistleblower confirmed that it was son's brain
Singh allegedly provided no apologies or information, supposedly only stating "I'll take it from here".
Weeks after the incident, a whistleblower working at the funeral home confirmed that it was their son's brain in the bag.
Moreover, Singh has placed his mishandled remains in a box and allegedly left it outside on the courtyard of the funeral home for over two months.
Another employee eventually spotted the box that had an overwhelming smell of "a rotting human brain".
As the lawsuit proceeds, lawyers are negotiating a plan to reunite Alex's brain with the rest of him, buried at Oak Hill Memorial Cemetery.
Top photo from ABC7 News and Canva
