A man whose body was locked away in a funeral parlor in downtown, Kingston for approximately 10 years, because of a legal battle as to who should pay for his funeral expenses, has finally been laid to rest.
Loop News has been informed that the funeral service for the man, Winston Roy Carby, who reportedly served as a pilot in the British Navy, took place earlier this year after the decade-long legal wrangling.
“I can confirm that he was buried,” the director of the funeral parlor that was holding the body, Michael Jones told Loop News on Thursday.
The development was also confirmed by a relative of Carby.
Reports are that in 2007, the man died leaving close to $40 million, property valued at over $25 million and instruction that monies from his property should be used to pay for his funeral expenses.
But the funeral parlor owner, Jones said none of those wishes were honored and for years he was left waiting on family members to bring the necessary documents and payments to allow him to proceed with the burial.
“The man died in 2007 and we made contact with family members,” Jones recalled, adding that after a series of discussions, burial preparations began.
But the family members failed to come up with the funds for the procedure.
Jones claimed that, at the time, Carby’s relatives requested that the man be buried and promised that payments would be made at a later date. But he said he refused to do that, knowing that the deceased left millions of dollars in both cash and assets to family members.
“Information we received was that the man passed away leaving more than $40 million and at least two properties valued at close to $15 million (in 2007), and left instructions that funds should be used from his assets to cover his funeral expenses,” the funeral director said
.
A copy of the will left by the deceased man showed that responsibility was left to a family member to complete the task of covering certain debts and funeral expenses.
The will stated that the man left behind two properties to his nephew, advising him to sell at least one of them “and from the proceeds of sale to satisfy all of my debts and liabilities whatsoever and wheresoever”.
In attempting to explain why it took so long to come up with the money to bury Carby, the relative said: “The funds were left, but what has happened is that all the funds got messed up… and the attorney who was appointed to deal with the case took all the funds and gone.”
Meanwhile, Jones, while relieved that Carby has finally been laid to rest, noted that, at the end of the legal wrangling, he was still left absorbing the bulk of the costs to store the body over the last 10 years.
He was seeking to recover at least $6 million but ended up getting $1 million.
“Based on the ruling from the court, I was expecting to receive more but it didn’t turn out how I had anticipated,” he told Loop News.
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