An Oregon mother is being compelled to exhume her son’s remains due to a grave-site mix-up by a funeral home. A judge has ruled that the plot should be given to a prominent family who had purchased it years prior.

“The lack of humanity and the entitlement displayed by someone wanting a piece of property where a mother’s son is already buried is unimaginable,” said David Williams, husband of Paula Tin Nyo. Their 20-year-old son, Tyber Harrison, tragically died in 2016, Williams shared in an interview with local CBS affiliate KOIN.

In 2021, Tin Nyo had her son’s ashes placed in a memorial vault at the Portland site, which was arranged by Skyline Memorial Gardens and Funeral Home. This vault contained not only Harrison’s ashes but also his baby teeth, hair, and personal mementos. Harrison had been struck and killed by a truck while walking.

However, a Multnomah County judge ruled in early December that Skyline had mistakenly sold the same plot in 2019 to Martin and Jane Reser for their son, Alex Reser, who died of an overdose at the age of 30. The Reser family is known for their billion-dollar company, Reser’s Fine Foods, based in Beaverton.

On December 22, a Multnomah County civil jury determined that Skyline was negligent in double-booking the plot. However, they concluded that this did not cause “severe emotional distress” to Tin Nyo, as she had violated her original contract with the funeral home. The contract specified that human cremains were not permitted in the burial plot, only mementos.

Tin Nyo’s lawyer, Darian Stanford, said this was due to a grieving mother not reading the fine print of the cemetery contract, according to The Oregonian.

“In 25 years as a lawyer, I’d say this is as profoundly sad and disappointed as I’ve ever been,” Stanford told the local newspaper. “Paula and her family deserve better.”

According to The Oregonian, Alex Reser is interred near the burial site in a Reser family plot. The family reportedly wanted to install a bench in the area where Harrison’s remains were located, which they plan to do in the coming year.

Skyline admitted to the double booking and tried to make things right by offering a refund of the $16,000 that Tin Nyo paid. It also offered to rebury her son’s vault just a few feet away, but she never responded to the offer.

“They took accountability for that mistake, they apologized for it, they offered every remedy available for it under the law and the contract,” Skyline’s attorney, St.Clair, told the Multnomah County jury this month during closing arguments, according to the Oregonian. “We’re asking you to look at facts over feelings,” St. Clair said.

Tin Nyo and her lawyer argued that only a small amount of ashes were placed in her son’s vault as part of a watercolor painting she made with them. Still, having the remains disinterred would cause severe emotional distress, they said.

“They didn’t think she would suffer,” Williams told KOIN, crying. “I can’t imagine anyone thinking that she wouldn’t suffer. I’m sad for those people that think this way.”

Williams added, “Paula and her kids will have to sadly process and go through this again.”

The Resers reportedly did not want to be part of the legal drama but were ordered to join the litigation against their wishes, KOIN reports. Attempts by the station and Law&Crime to reach them for comment were unsuccessful.

Skyline began digging up Harrison’s vault on Tuesday and is expected to fully remove it in the coming weeks. It did not respond to Law&Crime’s requests for comment.