Family says funeral home may have dumped father’s cremains

BOCA RATON, Fla. (AP) — For six years, a Florida family thought they had their patriarch’s ashes in an urn sitting on a mantle. But maybe not.

The daughter and widow of Robert Nero Sr. learned recently that ashes and a metal disk identifying them as his were found dumped in bushes at a West Palm Beach YWCA.

Sitting next to the urn in their lawyer’s office Tuesday, Nero’s widow, Corene, and his daughter, Gloria Nero Rolle, said they haven’t gotten answers from the funeral home that handled the cremation.

Stevens Brothers Funeral Home in Belle Glade, Florida, told The Associated Press the Nero family has their father’s ashes. They declined further comment.

Miami Dade College mortuary science professor Joseph Finocchiaro says DNA is almost always destroyed during cremation, so the ashes are likely unidentifiable.