Heartbroken daughter visited an empty grave for four years after bungling crematorium staff left her mother’s ashes on a shelf

• Daughter discovered Cardiff Crematorium had failed to bury her mother’s ashes
• Rachel Griffiths, 47, and son Jordan, 27, visited the empty grave up to 50 times
• Local council sent her a letter four years after her mother died of a heart attack
• It explained her ashes had been found in the crematorium after a recent check 

A daughter visited her mother’s empty grave for four years after bungling crematorium staff left her ashes on a shelf.

Heartbroken Rachel Griffiths, 47, thought she’d fulfilled Yvonne’s dying wishes by burying her with her own parents and sister.

But four years after she was supposedly laid to rest, crematorium staff confessed she’d never been buried at all – and bosses still have no clue why.

It means Rachel and her son Jordan, 27, visited the grave around 50 times without knowing she wasn’t there.

Care assistant Rachel, of Cardiff, said: ‘My mum was left on a shelf. It makes me feel physically sick to think I’d go up to the cemetery, my son used to go as well and talk to her and she wasn’t even there.

‘This should never ever have happened. I feel like I have let my mum down.’

Care assistant Rachel Griffiths, 47, visited her mother’s empty grave for four years after crematorium staff failed to bury her ashes. She is pictured beside the grave of her grandparents, aunty and now mother Yvonne in Western Cemetery, Cardiff

Rachel (pictured beside the tombstone) received a letter from Cardiff Council four years after her mother died explaining her ashes had been found inside the crematorium

Rachel and her son Jordan, 27, visited the empty grave at Western Cemetery up to 50 times. Yvonne’s ashes were finally buried in 2021 – four years after she was cremated in 2017

Rachel’s mother Yvonne died of a heart attack in May 2017 aged 61.

She had asked to be buried in the same plot as her parents Anita and Lyn at Western Cemetery in Cardiff.

Yvonne had kept her sister Lynette Magee’s ashes so that when she died the sisters could be buried together with their mother and father.

Following Yvonne’s funeral service, she was cremated at Cardiff Crematorium before being buried on June 5, 2017.

But a double casket for the sisters supplied to crematorium staff only had Lynette’s ashes put in.

More than four years later in August 2021 Rachel received a letter from Cardiff Council out of the blue.

In it, Martin Birch, Cardiff Council’s manager for bereavement services, explained that Yvonne’s ashes had been found at the crematorium during a recent check.

He added that an audit should have been carried out to discover the error more promptly and that two staff members responsible had recently left the council’s employment.

The letter said: ‘I am very sorry to have to inform you that during a recent check of cremated remains held at our crematorium we have discovered the cremated remains of your mother Yvonne are still with us and were not placed in the double casket supplied at the time for the interment.

‘I am currently investigating how this happened. Obviously in light of this I will be conducting a full review of our processes to ensure this cannot happen again.

‘I am really sorry for what has occurred, please accept my sincere apologies for this error on our part and for any additional distress this matter will cause you and your family.’

Pictured is Yvonne and Rachel with her son Jordan as a baby. Rachel says she feels ‘physically sick’ to think of all the times she visited the cemetery when her mother wasn’t even there

Yvonne, who died of a heart attack in 2017, is pictured with Rachel’s partner Mark Williams shortly before she passed away

Yvonne (right) is pictured celebrating her daughter’s 18th birthday during happier times

Yvonne’s remains have since been added to the plot, but not in the double casket she had wished for as a licence would have been required to exhume Lynette.

The council paid for the second interment and gave Rachel a bunch of flowers.

She now believes the results of a full audit should be made public so other families won’t be left in the dark.

A spokesperson for Cardiff Council said: ‘It’s hard to imagine the distress this mistake must have caused and we would like to reiterate the sincere apology that was offered to the family as soon as the error was discovered in June 2021.

‘An additional memorial inscription was also offered to the family at no cost, and all costs related to resolving the mistake were met by the Council.

‘An investigation into the circumstances, which relate to a cremation that took place in 2017, was immediately launched.

‘As a result, new processes have been introduced to ensure that a mistake of this nature cannot happen again.’

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