Trial begins in case where Boston funeral home lost remains of couple's stillborn child

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A civil trial began in Suffolk Superior Court today between a Boston couple and a Boston funeral home, which lost the remains of the couple's stillborn son apparently by cremating him with that of an adult woman in July 2003, according to testimony.

Robert Benedict testified today that he and his wife, Therese Bellissimo Benedict, were expecting twins when they learned at Brigham and Women's Hospital in April 2003 that one of the boys had died in the womb. The couple named him Lourdes and delivered the second child, named Cole, who is now a healthy 5-year-old.

Benedict testified that the couple hired J.S. Waterman and Sons funeral home in Boston to care for the remains of Lourdes. He testified that he brought to the funeral home a crochet blanket, a crucifix, and other items that the couple wanted kept near Lourdes. He also later brought a casket and had planned to lay Lourdes to rest in a mausoleum in an Everett cemetery.

But on July 28, 2003, Waterman staff called to report that they had lost Lourdes's remains, apparently when his body was accidentally put into a coffin being used to cremate a woman, according to testimony.

Months later, the couple searched through the woman’s ashes for bones or metal from a medal they had given their son. DNA testing showed the presence of male DNA in the ashes, but did not conclusively prove it was Lourdes’s remains, the father testified.

“We did not determine what happened to him,’’ he said, as he occasionally dabbed tears from his eyes with a tissue.

The attorney for Waterman, which is now owned by Texas-based firm Service Corporation International, told jurors in his opening statement that the funeral home accepts responsibility for losing the remains of the Benedicts' child.

But, he said, the emotional damage the couple suffers stems from the death of the child, not the mistake the company made by losing his remains.

"As people we can all sympathize with those parents who lose a late-term pregnancy,'' said Joseph J. Leghorn. ''But Waterman did not have anything to do with the loss of the late-term pregnancy.''

Benedict’s attorney, Gordon T. Walker, told jurors the loss of Lourdes’s remains has left the family devastated. “They’ve been deprived of an end to their grief,’’ he told jurors.

The trial resumes today before Superior Court Judge Paul K. Troy.

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