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BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (WVTM) — A Birmingham family is taking its fight public after spending years trying to find the remains of their grandmother, who was supposed to be buried at Zion Memorial Gardens in 2023.
“We haven’t been able to locate my grandmother’s grave,” Quanal Reaves said.
Reaves’ grandmother, Carrie Griffin, died in November 2023 at age 97 and was to be laid to rest at Zion Memorial Gardens next to her late husband, Jimmie Griffin Sr., who died in August 2004.
According to a lawsuit filed by the family’s attorney, Richard Rice, a family member returned to the cemetery about a month after Griffin’s funeral to place flowers at the gravesite and found there was no headstone.
Key points of the family’s lawsuit:
1. Negligence and/or wantonness: Mishandling the remains or failing to record and secure the location of the purchased grave. The family alleges continuing mental and emotional distress. (pp. 15–16)
2. Outrage: Allegedly extreme and outrageous conduct causing severe emotional distress. (p. 16)
3. Breach of contract: Alleged failure to provide the promised burial location, maintain the plots and headstone, properly prepare the grave, keep adequate records, and communicate respectfully with the family. The family also claims financial costs from conducting its own search. (pp. 16–18)
4. Fraud, fraudulent suppression, and misrepresentation: Allegedly representing that accurate burial records would be maintained and that the defendants knew where Carrie was buried when they did not. (p. 19)
5. Unjust enrichment: Allegedly collecting money for burial sites or services that were unavailable or not properly performed. (pp. 19–20)
Intentional desecration of a gravesite: Allegedly driving maintenance vehicles over the graves and damaging or destroying gravesites and markers. (pp. 20–22)
6. Piercing the corporate veil: The family asks the court to hold Beverly McMillian personally responsible, alleging Zion Memorial Gardens was effectively her alter ego. The complaint makes similar alter-ego allegations concerning Jim Stokes and Superior Concrete. (pp. 22–23)
7. Immediate affirmative injunctive relief: An order requiring the defendants to stand aside and not interfere while the family retains a geo-contractor to locate Carrie Griffin’s grave. (pp. 23–24)
“In our eyes, that’s more criminal and gross negligence than anything,” Reaves said.
Rice, who has represented the family for more than a year, said Griffin was an important figure in the family.
“Their grandmother was a matriarch, a leader in their family. She lived her life a certain way… They want her final resting place to be a representative of how she lived her life,” Rice said.
Beverly McMillian is listed as the owner of the cemetery. A call to a number tied to McMillian and an Atlanta-area address went unanswered, with no voicemail available.
In 2018, Alabama state lawmakers appointed the first seven-member Jefferson County Cemetery Board. The person listed as the board’s chairman said he did not believe the board was active.
“My understanding has been that the board has been either not funded or underfunded,” Rice said. “It’s one of those things that it’s been a slow process to get the right people in the right position and give them the right tools to take action when they need to.”
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