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Family Traumatized During Funeral When a Decaying Foot of a Corpse Emerges in Their Grandfather's Grave

The Butlers also witnessed a worker drop his phone and cigarettes into the burial site.

A family attempting to lay their beloved grandfather to rest in a New Jersey cemetery was horrified when a decaying foot from a neighboring grave emerged. 

As Cleveland Butler, 85, was lowered into the ground in the bright blue casket his family chose, the foot appeared in the dirt at Mount Holiness Memorial Park.

“This was a very traumatizing situation, first dealing with losing my father and then this,” the deceased's daughter, Sandra Butler, told the New York Daily News. “I couldn’t even look at it. It was too much, and no one said anything to us. It was like business as usual for them. They just dumped the dirt in the plot like it was normal, like it’s nothing to them.”

Cleveland Butler died after suffering a stroke at his Brooklyn nursing home. His services took place last Friday.

As the Butler family witnessed the disturbing foot, some of the relatives snapped a photo in order to report the incident. 

“We all looked down and we were looking at what apparently was a human foot and leg wrapped in plastic, with cloth wrapped around it, sticking out on top of my father’s casket,” Cleveland's son, Alonzo, told the Daily News.

Cleveland’s relatives were also upset about how the cemetery workers ignored the foot and continued filling the grave.

“They heard it was a leg on the casket and they didn’t even try to investigate it,” Alonzo said.

The family noticed the foot when one of the workers accidentally dropped a pack of cigarettes and his phone into the open grave, relatives said.

When the worker fished out his items with a rake, he saw the limb.

“This is beyond heinous for anyone to witness during their time of grieving over a loved one,” Rev. Kevin McCall, crisis director with the National Action Network, told the Daily News.

He called on New Jersey officials and police to “investigate this despicable act immediately to uncover who is responsible.”

The Butlers may hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit seeking compensation for pain and suffering.

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