Remains Missing; UCI Sued

Vincent Craig’s last wish was to have his ashes scattered off the New England coast.

But after agreeing to donate his body to UC Irvine’s medical school for research, that request vanished in the bureaucracy. Now, his family says, they have no ashes--and no closure.

“I can’t put my hands on anything to say goodbye to him,” said Helen Veronica Craig, the widow. “To me, I feel like he’s around somewhere.”

The family has sued for an undisclosed sum, alleging that the ordeal has caused “great emotional distress and shock.”

“It’s been rough,” the Craigs’ son, Vince, said. “We’re all very confused and disappointed in UCI. We had wanted to help [school officials] and trusted them. They have just been closing the door on us.”

UCI officials declined to comment because of the pending lawsuit.

The late 78-year-old Anaheim Hills resident, who had Alzheimer’s disease, died in September 1995, and his body was given to the school. When they consented to the donation, the family says, officials of UCI’s College of Medicine assured them that the cremated remains would be returned to them for a memorial service. The Craigs had planned a family reunion in New England during the summer of 1996, when they would spread the ashes on the ocean.

“He loved the ocean,” said Vince Craig, 46, also of Anaheim Hills. “And he was born in New England.”

For months, the family said, Vince Craig unsuccessfully tried to get information from program administrators, who told him that they didn’t have adequate staffing to be able to search the records. Then on June 15, 1997, the son spoke to a secretary who told him that his father’s ashes already had been disposed of through a service hired by the school.

Craig then asked for proof that the cremation had occurred, but has not received any reply from authorities, he said.

“I didn’t feel there was any apology given there,” he said. “They didn’t care.”

The family became even more distressed earlier this year when they learned that state investigators had discovered the cremated remains of dozens of people whose ashes had been stored in containers at Anaheim’s Southwest Mortuary Service, whose clients include UCI’s medical school. Dr. Robert Robertson of UCI and a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Consumer Affairs confirmed the incident.

The medical school had been paying the service to scatter the ashes in the Pacific Ocean, but has since terminated the contract. State investigators are trying to identify the remains and determine whether they were from the medical school or another client, school officials said.

“We were just in shock,” Craig said. “For all we know, my dad is among those ashes.”

Frustrated, Craig and his mother filed suit June 2, accusing UC regents of “consciously and recklessly” breaching an agreement to return the ashes to the family.

The Craigs also say they want to warn other families and to send a message to the medical school to be more sensitive to the relatives of those who donate organs or give their bodies for research.

“We don’t trust UCI,” Vince Craig said. “At this point we just want to make them understand the errors of their ways and make a greater effort next time for the sake of other families of organ donors.”

Spokeswomen from both the California Medical Board and the state’s Department of Health Services said they know of no cases similar to the Craigs’.

Each medical research center has its own procedure for handling cadavers, but many do give family members the option of receiving the cremated remains for memorial services, they said.

Craig said he still believes that donations are “truly wonderful” and plans to be an organ donor himself.

But had he known that the ashes of his father would not be returned to the family, he would never have agreed to donate the body, he said.

“I feel like I’ve disappointed my family, because I was supposed to take care of this. . . . Now we have lost forever the chance to have closure on my dad’s death.”