As guests approached her son’s body, Tabitha Worrell and others noticed that his body was “covered with and consumed by clumps of maggots.”
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A Virginia woman is suing a funeral home for $5 million, plus interest, after she claims her late son’s remains were consumed by maggots during his viewing.
The woman, Tabitha Worrell, is suing Snellings Funeral Home and Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home, according to court documents filed in circuit court and obtained by USA TODAY.
In the lawsuit, Worrell’s lawyers allege that Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home failed to properly care for her son’s remains. Snellings Funeral Home is a member of the Hollomon-Brown family, and has been since Dec. 31, 1975, according to the funeral home’s website.
The funeral home did not respond to USA TODAY’s requests for comment on July 1.
Woman says her son’s body was covered in ‘clumps of maggots’
Snellings Funeral Home and Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home provide funeral services throughout Virginia, including Chesapeake, about 25 miles west of Virginia Beach.
After Worrell’s son, Torreon Williams, died on May 2, 2022, in a car accident, she hired the company to arrange his memorial services, noting that she wanted an open casket viewing at the funeral home, per the lawsuit, filed in Chesapeake Circuit Court.
Worrell made a down payment of $3,000, and the funeral home agreed to complete sanitary care and dress the body, per the lawsuit. On May 9, 2022, Worrell and other loved ones gathered for the viewing, where they noticed the doors to the facility were open and the facility was warm.
As guests approached her son’s body, Worrell and others noticed that “his face, nose, and mouth, were covered with and consumed by clumps of maggots,” the lawsuit reads.
In the lawsuit, Worrell’s lawyers allege that the maggots had been on and in her son’s body for an extended amount of time. The lawyers said funeral home employees “purposely ignored” the maggots, which had “burrowed into holes in his cheek and mouth that had not existed.”
When those at the viewing saw the maggots consuming Williams, they “experienced shock and horror at the grotesque display of the body,” as well as “extreme emotional disturbance,” the lawsuit reads.
‘Flies got to him’
According to the lawsuit, when funeral home staff got wind of what was happening, one employee approached the casket, put her hands on Worrell, and said, “Don’t you make a scene.”
A male employee also looked at the body and said, “Flies got to him,” per the lawsuit.
Among the claims the lawyers make in the lawsuit are that the funeral home failed to:
- Keep his remains in a properly sealed refrigeration environment.
- Keep insects, flies, and maggots from infesting his body.
- Clean and inspect their premises for insect infestation.
- Inspect, clean and maintain his body before his service.
- Make modifications to his display and presentation at the service.
The lawyers said Worrell paid for services that were not performed in the proper manner, and they breached the contract they agreed upon with Worrell.
Mother has been traumatized, lawyers say
According to her lawyers, Worrell experienced “significant emotional distress, heartache, mental turmoil, and anxiety,” as well as trauma, due to the situation.
She suffers from nightmares, sleeplessness, flashbacks, depression, nausea, humiliation, embarrassment, grief, and horror due to what she experienced, her lawyers argued in the lawsuit. She now needs to pay for therapy, the court document continued.
Worrell’s lawyer, Kevin Sharp, said in a July 1 news release that Hollomon-Brown Funeral Home had duties to fulfill to Worrell, her son and loved ones.
“Hollomon-Brown was entrusted with the responsibility of providing this young man with a dignified viewing – one that would allow his family to mourn his passing with grace and respect,” Sharp wrote. “Instead, Hollomon-Brown subjected them to an unimaginable horror – an experience so traumatic it continues to haunt them to this day.”
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at sdmartin@usatoday.com.
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