Why is Forest Lawn Covina Hills funeral home being sued? Mixed casket drama explained as one family member ends up on life support

Forest Lawn Covina Hills funeral home in Walnut, California, is making headlines as they misplaced Joey Espinosa's dead body. Espinosa died due to heart failure. This month, at the 44-year-old's memorial service, Espinosa's aunt, Laura Levario, noticed that the casket looked different from what they had selected.

Once they opened the casket, the family realized that the mortuary had given them someone else's dead body. They told KSLA that the funeral home staff took them to a different room. However, it was supposedly a different body again.

It took the staff more than an hour to locate Espinosa's casket, and then the service was held. While the search was ongoing, Laura's husband, George Levario, had a heart attack due to stress and was put on life support. He woke up after three days and called it "the worst experience."

"She told me I collapsed... I woke up three days later in a hospital on life support. It's the worst experience we've ever had," George told the news outlet.

Forest Lawn Covina Hills funeral home staff allegedly offered the grieving family $200 as compensation. However, the cost of the memorial service was around $20,000. The Espinosa family told the media that they were going to sue the funeral home for emotional distress and negligence.

The Espinosa family's attorney, Elvis Tran, told CBS News that the staff did not do their duties properly and caused a mourning family to search for the deceased man's body.

According to the Daily Mail's October 27, 2025, report, the funeral costs at the mortuary start at $10,000. Forest Lawn Covina Hills funeral home's website claimed that they offer "meaningful," "respectful," and "dignified" services.

"No matter what your faith, culture, or language, Forest Lawn strives to help you create something personal and meaningful... We also provide respectful, dignified, and affordable cremation services at our own facilities," the website stated.

In Georgia, the funeral home mistakenly put the wrong body in the casket

Donald Trimble Mortuary in Decatur, Georgia, was hired to arrange the funeral of the 95-year-old Lucy Johnson in 2023. Her granddaughter, Marva Lynch, paid nearly $9,000 for it and gave them a wig and clothes for the body.

Although it was a closed-casket funeral, Marva briefly checked to see if her grandmother had worn the items. Her attorney, Jonathan Johnson, told Fox5 Atlanta that Marva was crying at the moment and did not notice the body properly.

The service resumed as usual. However, between the service and the burial, the staff from Donald Trimble Mortuary took Marva aside and told her that they mistakenly put someone else's body in the casket, and needed to swap it with her grandmother. Lynch's attorney noted that Marva appreciated the staff's honesty.

"To their credit the funeral home admitted this. They pulled her aside and said we need to take the corpse back and swap the bodies before we actually put the body in the ground because we have the wrong body," the attorney said.

This year in May, Lynch decided to sue the funeral home for negligence, mishandling of human remains, and breach of contract. She demanded that the mortuary compensate for the emotional distress and costs. Her attorney told the news outlet that Donald Trimble Mortuary was being "stubborn and unresponsive."

Forrest Johnson, the attorney representing Donald Trimble Mortuary, said that they were aware of the complaint. He noted that the mortuary took pride in its "professional services" and shared their prayers for Lynch and her family.

Stay tuned for more viral news and updates on the Forest Lawn Covina Hills funeral home mixed-casket drama.