An elderly Florida couple says two burial plots they bought nearly twenty years ago in a Tampa cemetery are no longer available to them, and they only discovered the problem when they tried to sell the plots and use the money to make new final arrangements closer to where they live now.
In a report for WFLA News Channel 8, consumer investigator Shannon Behnken said Sue and James Artiga purchased the plots at Woodlawn Cemetery in 2006, choosing spaces beside James’s parents’ graves. At the time, the decision appears to have made perfect sense for a family with deep ties to that cemetery, but years later, after moving away from Tampa, the couple says they decided to change plans and transfer the plots to a buyer.
That is when, according to Behnken’s report, they were told something that left them stunned: someone may already be buried in the graves they paid for, there is no marker identifying who it might be, and at least at first, they were told they would not be getting a refund.
A Sale Attempt Turned Into A Disturbing Discovery
Behnken explained that the Artigas were not digging through old paperwork looking for a fight. They were trying to handle something practical and personal by selling the plots and using the proceeds to set up arrangements near their current home in the Panhandle…