Bodies going bump in the night?
Family's lawsuit alleges loved-one's cemetery plots occupied by someone else

By Bill Donovan
Staff writer

GALLUP — On Saturday, Regina Estorga and members of her family went to visit the grave site of her brother, Johnny B. Diaz, at Sunset Memorial Park.

Actually, they went to two different areas of the cemetery because they aren’t totally sure where his body is buried.
And that’s the reason why the family last week filed a lawsuit in McKinley County District Court against the park and Kenneth Gaze, the park’s manager. The family’s claim is that Gaze ordered park staff to move Diaz’s body and bury him somewhere else because park officials had sold the plot he was originally buried in to another party.

And she’s not the only one upset at Gaze.

Ray Dean Bailey last April purchased a plot at the park for his wife, Joann E. Bailey, who had just died. He also has been informed that her remains need to be moved because the plot where she was buried had previously been sold to someone else.

“He (Gaze) has no idea how much he has hurt us,” said Estorga, who still gets emotional and starts crying when she thinks of what has happened to her brother’s body in the last few weeks.

She and her mother, as well as several other members of the Diaz family, are listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

On April 26, the family entered into a contract with Gaze and the park to inter the body of Johnny B. Diaz in space 4 in Block 70 at a cost of just over $1,700. The interment was done and the family had a Catholic priest on hand to bless the grave site.

On June 4, the family was told that the body had to be moved because the plot belonged to someone else. The family refused to consider it since the site had already been blessed by a priest. But Estorga said Gaze told the family they had no choice — either they pick a spot to where his body would be moved or Gaze would do it.

Esorga said the family members, feeling they had no choice, agreed to a new site but stressed that they wanted to be there, along with a priest, to observe the move and have the new grave site blessed.

But when the family contacted Gaze in late June, they were told that the body had already been moved.

Something similar happened with Ray Bailey. His wife was buried in April and then in July, he was told that her body would have to be moved. He has continued to refuse to give his permission for any move.

William Stripp, their attorney, said state law does not allow a cemetery to move a body unless it is approved by a judge or by a medical examiner. The law states that a permit must be approved “by the state registrar or state medical investigator to a licensed funeral service practitioner or direct disposer.”

“This has not been done,” he said.

While no one connected with the park would comment publicly about the situation, it apparently stems from problems that occurred when the park was run by Tommy Crow, who is now in Grants.

There have been a number of stories recently about problems faced by the new management at the park in recent months because of what they called lax bookkeeping in the past which made it difficult to determine at times whether a plot had been sold or not.

During the past several months, the new management has been doing a survey and managed in the last month or two to determine which plots were still available for sale. As they did this, staff members were able to determine that the plots sold back in April to the Diaz and Bailey families had already been sold to someone else.

It was at that time that they pointed to provisions within the contract signed by the families that allowed the park management to move the bodies.

These two are apparently the last two plots where there are any questions about ownership since the park is now preparing to start renting out a new section where no plots have been sold in the past.

While Bailey is continuing to fight any effort to move his wife’s body. Estorga said the family finally accepted the idea that the body had to be moved even though they questioned at first whether the body could be moved under Catholic law once the grave site had been blessed.

The Rev. Lawrence O’Keefe, pastor of Sacred Heart Cathedral in Gallup, said there is no church law that would prohibit the moving of the body. He said he had been asked to bless the new grave site but so far has not been called upon to do so.

Estorga said the problem the family had was “Gaza’s rudeness” and his refusal to be straight with the family as to whether the body has been moved or not.

“Plaintiffs do not know whether the defendants actually moved Johnny B. Diaz’s body or, if they did, whether the casket or body were damaged during the move,” the Diaz lawsuit states.