Grave sites to be exhumed after burial mix-up

ATLANTA — The wrong man was buried during a closed casket funeral in Georgia, where officials on Thursday sought a court order to exhume the grave after a mix-up by the state crime lab in Atlanta.

Johnny Morgan Lowe was believed to have been buried in a Dec. 8 ceremony featuring a closed casket and a memorial photo, according to Coroner Susan Salemi in Burke County, Georgia.

Instead, Salemi said she had to tell the family last week that they had buried a stranger.

“The family is absolutely devastated,” said Salemi, who was asking a Georgia Superior Court to agree to exhume the grave site. “I have no idea how this happened, except that the crime lab called me and said that there was a mistake.”

The state crime lab performed an autopsy on Lowe, who died after a fall.

Buried in his place was Louie Caldwell of Clayton County, Georgia, the coroner said.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, which runs the lab, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Salemi said she did not know how soon Caldwell will be disinterred, and Lowe put in his proper grave.