A federal lawsuit alleges that after Ivan Street, 67 (pictured) died in January, a Baltimore funeral home defrauded his widow by ignoring her request to cremate him, and instead burying him on the orders of another woman claiming to be his wife
A widow is suing a Baltimore funeral home, claiming that it held a ‘sham’ service for her husband after pretending to cremate him, days after burying the deceased at the directions of another woman who claimed she was his wife.
The twisted tale involving Ivan Street and the two women in his life is the subject of a federal lawsuit that was filed last week in the US District Court for the District of Maryland, alleging breach of contract, negligence, malicious fraud, misrepresentation and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims.
Street’s wife, 52-year-old Demetra Street, is seeking $8.5million in damages, arguing that the entire ordeal has left her suffering from depression.
The domestic saga began unfolding on January 9, when Ivan Street passed away from congestive heart failure, aged 67.
Four days later, Demetra, Street’s wife of four years, approached Wylie Funeral Home in Baltimore and arranged for her husband’s body to be cremated, in accordance with his wishes.
The complaint says Demetra Street, 52, had entered into a $2,500 contract with Wylie Funeral Home (pictured) to cremate her husband and hold a memorial service for him
The complaint alleges that the widow signed a contract for $2,500 for the cremation, followed by a memorial service, after presenting funeral home staff with her and Ivan’s official marriage certificate bearing a gold seal.
But a few days later, according to the lawsuit, another woman who identified herself as Renee Cook went to the funeral home, also claiming to be Ivan’s wife and seeking to have him buried.
Cook provided Wylie staffers with an unofficial marriage certificate dated October 24, 1997.
One of the funeral home employees called Demetra to tell her about Cook’s claims and was told by the widow to ignore her and proceed with the cremation, the lawsuit states.
The court filing alleges that the funeral home proceeded to lay the deceased man to rest after accepting payment from Cook for a coffin, cemetery plot and burial, and then faked his cremation in order to keep Demetra’s fee.
Wylie Funeral Home President Brandon Wylie has denied any wrongdoing, telling the Baltimore Sun, which first reported on the story, that ‘the underlying matter was handled with the utmost sensitivity toward the loved ones of the deceased.’
When Demetra arrived at the funeral home for her late husband’s memorial service on January 23, she allegedly had no idea that he had not been cremated but secretly buried on Cook’s orders days earlier.
Demetra sang a tribute to Ivan while standing in front of a funerary urn purportedly containing her husband’s ashes, the court document reads.
After the service, Wylie employees were said to have quickly removed the urn and refused to hand over Ivan’s ashes to Demetra.
Two days later, Demetra said she received an email from a funeral home worker, revealing that Ivan had been laid to rest at Mt Zion Cemetery.
Renee Cook was said to have presented the funeral home with an unofficial marriage certificate from 1997. She paid to have Ivan Street (left and right) laid to rest, which was done
‘Confused and surprised,’ according to the complaint, Demetra called the funeral home seeking an explanation, and was told by one of the owners, identified as Mr Wylie, that Ivan had, in fact, been buried as requested by Cook .
‘When [Demetra] told him what he had done was wrong and against her wishes, Wylie responded: “Well, that’s what we did” or words to that effect. Then, he abruptly hung up the phone,’ the complaint alleges.
When Demetra received her husband’s death certificate from the Maryland Department of Health Division of Vital Statistics, she learned that a funeral home worker had ‘falsely and intentionally reported the surviving spouse’s name as “Unknown.”‘
The death certificate also confirmed that Ivan had been buried at Mt Zion Celemtery in Baltimore on January 20, three days before the ‘sham’ memorial service.
‘Because Defendants concealed the Burial from [Demetra], she was excluded from attending Ivan’s Burial, paying her last respects, and participating in a graveside service,’ according to the court filing.
‘Through artifice and deception, Defendants conducted a sham Memorial Service by falsely, fraudulently, and maliciously misleading the Plaintiff and others to believe that Ivan had been cremated and that his ashes were contained in the funerary urn that Defendants displayed at the Memorial Service.’
The lawsuit also accuses Wylie Funeral Home of inflicting further embarrassment and humiliation on Demetra by failing to remove Renee Cook’s tribute to Ivan from its website, which reads: ‘to the memory of my beloved husband. You were my best friend. The many loving memories I have of the tie we shared will forever comfort me in your absence. . . . You will be sorely missed my love.’
The complaint claims that in the wake of the incident, Demetra has been seeing a psychiatrist and taking prescription Zoloft for her depression, panic attacks, post-traumatic street disorder and social anxiety disorder.
The 52-year-old widowed mother was said to be suffering from uncontrollable crying and eating, headaches and nightmares.
Court records indicate that in 2018 Demetra had filed for a divorce from Ivan, but it was not finalized before his death.
Demetra’s attorney, Alexander Coffin, told the Baltimore Sun that couple still had a close relationship with her husband.