Pennsylvania Parents Receive Son’s Brain in Leaking Box: Lawsuit Unpacks Chaos
Pennsylvania funeral home, two grieving parents, and a white cardboard box hiding a leaking, unlabeled red container: In 2025, Lawrence and Abbey Butler’s lawsuit ignited “can funeral homes send organs” and “what happens if remains are mishandled” searches, after their son Timothy Garlington’s brain oozed through the box and into their car. “It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,” Lawrence said, the memory etching itself onto every family drive.
With the Butlers’ sedan now a rolling biohazard, the legal drama expands: Nix & Nix Funeral Homes and Southern Cremations at Cheatham Hill both deny fault, while internet users clamor for “funeral home lawsuit outcomes” and “biohazard shipping mistakes.” The surreal twist: the family’s only apology came from the persistent smell, never the companies. Lawrence Butler grimly noted, “I had to get rid of that car.”
State investigators found paperwork gaps but no apologies, leaving the Butlers’ last memory of their Marine son as a leaking brain box that forced them to junk the entire vehicle.
