Families to be reunited with cremated remains found in Akron church
TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Area families whose loved ones’ cremated remains were found in an Akron Church a few weeks ago are now being told they’ll be reunited with those remains next month.
But some of those families are asking for a more thorough look because they already received what they believed were their loved one’s remains.
Nick Foreman had never opened the box holding his uncle Rolland Adams’ cremated remains until the last two weeks when he saw the list detailing what the state Bureau of Criminal Investigation found inside an Akron church. Cremated remains were found and one of the boxes was listed as his uncle.
“It just crushed me, man, this whole time I was thinking that I had him here resting already. Come to find out I didn’t,” said Foreman.
That’s the issue for Foreman and other families that received remains from Tate Funeral Home in Toledo when their love ones died.
“Who’s to say those are his remains. I don’t know if I have his remains with me already. I mean it’s a box with his name on it. I don’t see what they aren’t doing DNA on all these,” said Foreman.
An Attorney General spokesman tells 13abc there are no plans to DNA test the roughly 90 human remains found at the Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Akron. In fact medical experts say if a cremation is done properly there would not be DNA available to test.
Foreman says he’s found a company that would test for DNA. He may go that route when he gets those remains in February unless the state changes its mind and maybe get them some answers.
What continues to frustrate these families is how and why their loved ones ended up leaving Tate Funeral Home on Lagrange Street in Toledo and ending up in a church in Akron. And they may never get those answers. Robert Tate died in 2020.
“My whole family is crushed about this. Everybody involved all the other families I bet they’re crushed too,” said Foreman.
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