MISSION VIEJO : Mortuary Sued in Theft of Son’s Ashes

The parents of a young man whose cremated ashes disappeared from a post office truck during shipment to their house have sued a mortuary for failing to deliver the remains.

John L. Vahradian, 22, a graduate of Mission Viejo High School, who was crushed to death when a wall collapsed last March 11, was cremated at the Everly Funeral Home in suburban Washington, D.C. His ashes were to be shipped to his family’s home.

But the ashes never arrived, and the young man’s parents, Jack and Betty Vahradian, filed suit this week in suburban Washington, seeking $100,050 from the funeral home.

“I don’t think anyone ought to send anything of great value through the U.S. Mail--that includes jewelry or anything. I wish they had told me at the mortuary how they were going to ship his remains, because I would have stayed there overnight to receive them,” Jack Vahradian said in an interview Thursday night.

About a week after his son’s death, Vahradian said, he had the U.S. Postal Service put a tracer on the package, which he said got as far as Orange County. But he soon learned what happened to his son’s remains from his neighborhood postal carrier instead of the postal inspector’s office.

“Our mailman came to our house one day to deliver mail and we asked him whatever became of our package,” Vahradian said. “And he said, ‘You mean, they haven’t told you yet?’ He told us it was stolen from a truck in a nearby alley in Mission Viejo.”

An official at the funeral home, who declined to be identified, said the ashes were properly shipped.

Vahradian and his attorney, Bernard Simbole, of Arlington, Va., contend the funeral home was responsible for their safe delivery.

“We gave the body to the mortuary in good faith,” Simbole said.

Vahradian died when he, his brother Mark and some friends tried to climb a wall in an alley in Georgetown as a shortcut to a bar. He was crushed to death when a piece of the wall collapsed on top of him.

The owner of the wall is being sued, Vahradian said.

The lawsuits were filed, Vahradian said, to help establish a scholarship fund in his son’s memory and to help bring attention to the family’s plight.

“I want everyone to know what’s happened to me so it won’t happen to them,” Vahradian said.

“If anyone knows something about my son’s remains, I wouldn’t prosecute. I just want to know where my son’s ashes ended up. If they threw them away, at a dump, or wherever, I just want to know. If they still have it, we would like to have them to give him a proper burial,” Vahradian said.

A scholarship fund, already at $15,000 from the son’s insurance, has been established in Vahradian’s name at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va., where he attended college, his father said.

Last August, the Vahradian family planted a tree in their son’s honor in front of Mission Viejo High, where Vahradian’s son was a star swimmer.

A small stone is inscribed, “This tree is planted in loving memory of John Lee Vahradian, Class of 1984.”

“Since there’s nowhere to bury the boy I want his name to live on somewhere,” Vahradian said.