A North Philly funeral home gave parents an unmarked box with their son’s brain, lawsuit says
It's unclear how or why a box containing Timothy Garlington's brain made it from Southern Cremations & Funerals in Georgia to Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in North Philadelphia, and eventually his parents.
About two weeks after their adult son, Timothy Garlington, died in November 2023, Lawrence and Abbey Butler retrieved his possessions from a North Philadelphia funeral home.
Among his belongings was an unmarked white box encasing a smaller, hard-to-open red box.
The couple drove home and left the box in their car. After a few days, the car began to smell and liquid came out of the box. The parents opened it and found that it contained their son’s brain.
“I smelled death,” Lawrence Butler said. “I had to get rid of that car. I just couldn’t stand the idea that the remains were in that car.”
The Butlers sued Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in North Philadelphia and Southern Cremations & Funerals in Georgia, accusing the establishments of negligence that caused the parents “severe emotional distress and mental pain.”
Garlington, 56, lived in Georgia at the time of his death. He died following a catastrophic incident, said L. Chris Stewart, an attorney with Atlanta-based Stewart Miller Simmons representing the Butlers. He declined to provide more information. (The family is also represented locally by Samuel Anyan of Wapner Newman.)
After Garlington’s death, his body was taken to Southern Cremations & Funerals, says the suit, which was filed in Common Pleas Court in Philadelphia. But it was important to his mother that Garlington be buried in Philadelphia, which the Marine veteran always considered his home, Lawrence Butler said.
The body was transported to Nix & Nix Funeral Homes along with the white box, Stewart said.
“This is a thing of a movie,” the attorney said. “Nightmares.”
A representative for Nix & Nix said that the issue had been thoroughly investigated by the Pennsylvania State Board of Funeral Directors but declined to comment further.
The board’s website does not show any disciplinary action against Nix & Nix.
Southern Cremations & Funerals did not respond to a request for comment.
Why Garlington’s brain was removed from the body and placed in a box, and how that box made its way to the Butlers, remains unknown, Stewart said.
Nix & Nix had an inventory list of Garlington’s belongings, which did not include a white box, the attorney said, adding that the funeral home had a duty to examine the box before handing it to the parents.
“Why would you give this to them?” Stewart said. “[This] is one of the most horrific cases that I’ve ever had.”
Lawrence Butler said that his son played football for his elementary school team and attended Central High School before transferring to Simon Gratz. He joined the Marines and served for four years. When Garlington returned to civilian life, he began working as a financial aid director, a career path that took him to Atlanta. Garlington’s daughter also became a Marine.
The father said it is important that the funeral homes prevent such an ordeal from happening to anyone else.
“We just trusted them to do what we thought should be done, correctly,” Lawrence Butler said. “And this was not that.”