Heartbroken daughter scattered stranger's ashes instead of mum's after Glasgow funeral home mix-up

A grieving daughter has been left devastated after discovering she had scattered a stranger's ashes instead of her mum's.

Jackie Barnes, 57, received a letter on Wednesday informing her that her mum's ashes were at Cardross Crematorium, Argyll and Bute having been found at A Milne Undertaker’s Glasgow office following a police raid of the premises.

For three years, Jackie, from Dumbarton, had cared for a complete stranger's ashes as she believed them to be her late mum Margaret Rennie who died aged 74 in November 2021 of COPD.

Jackie's father Thomas Rennie wished that they be scattered together when his time came, so Jackie kept a hold of them until he passed however, is now reeling from the shock that she scattered his ashes with a complete stranger.

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It is the second known case of mixed up ashes at the undertakers, which is currently at the centre of a police investigation into financial irregularities.

The Daily Record reports that Margaret’s ashes were discovered during a police raid of the Glasgow premises. The company previously closed a second site in Dumbarton.

At First Minister's Questions Labour’s health spokeswoman and Jackie’s local MSP, Jackie Baillie, raised the issue with First Minister, John Swinney.

She said: “The First Minister will be aware of the unfolding scandal of the funeral business run by Steven and Ashleigh Milne.

“Ashes of the deceased have knowingly been given to the wrong relatives, funeral plans have been missold defrauding people of thousands of pounds.

“Just this week Mrs Barnes, my constituent, was told that the ashes of her mother who died in 2021 have been found at the funeral parlour.

“Whose ashes was she given, whose ashes did she scatter with her father’s?

“This parliament passed legislation in 2016, regulations on a code of practice for funeral directors passed in January but will not be implemented until March 2025 and we are still waiting for regulations on licensing and inspection eight years on.”

She called on John Swinney to “act urgently and accelerate the regulations so people can be protected from rogue funeral directors.”

Jackie’s husband Daniel, died on December 18 2020 from cancer, and now she is worried that the ashes she was given may not be him either.

During an exclusive interview with the Record she said: “Milne were supposed to bring my husband home and we were supposed to get to see him but when they brought him home it was in a closed coffin. They just said they were busy and because it was Covid they had to take him to get cremated that day.

“When I got his ashes they were similar to the ones I got for my mum. They came in he same kind of wee ‘sweetie’ jar with a white sticker with his name on it. The ashes I was given for what I thought was my mum were the same.”

And heartbreakingly she said: “I spoke to my mum and Danny every day. I would move them around the house so they were in the sunshine.

“I still have my husband’s ashes in the house but I don’t know if they are really his. I am hoping there is a way to have them DNA tested to find out.”

When Jackie’s dad died on January 3 this year of lung cancer his last wish was to be with his Maggie.

Jackie said: “That was the reason we had kept my mum. My mum and dad did everything together and he always said ‘when I go make sure we are together’.

“About six weeks ago we scattered them together in the garden of rest at Cardross Crematorium, where my nana and grandad are also scattered.”

Jackie’s family travelled from different parts of Scotland and England to attend and the family also included some ashes belonging to Jackie’s brother Andy who died in 2017.

But on Wednesday Jackie received a harrowing letter from Argyll and Bute Council to tell her that the ashes she had scattered were not those of her mum.

In the letter, operations manager Tom Murphy told her: “Following a recent investigation by Police Scotland, a container of ashes was discovered on the premises of A Milne Funeral Directors, 14a Balornock Road, Glasgow.

“I’m very sorry to inform you that the container contains the ashes of the late Margaret Rennie who was cremated at Cardross Crematorium on the 3rd December 2021.”

He continued that the ashes had been taken back into their care for safekeeping until Jackie is able to collect them.

Jackie said: “I read it about 100 times. I kept thinking I was reading it wrong. I phoned my friend crying, she was crying.

“It was like grieving my mum all over again. Then I had to tell my big brother, Tam, who is really upset about it.”

But she said she feels “terrible” that she has scattered the ashes of someone else’s loved one.

She said: “I have no idea whose ashes I actually scattered. I feel terrible because some other poor family won’t get their loved ones ashes back because I have laid them to rest with my dad.

“I am one of the lucky ones. I got my mum back.

“Now I am going to have to scatter my mum again and will need to call my uncles to tell them we didn’t scatter their sister. I don’t know what I am going to tell them.

“It took me five months to get my ‘mum’ after the funeral. Eventually I said I was coming to the shop to get her and they told me to come down.

“I was actually on my way to my friend’s funeral at the time and had to take my mum with me in a carrier bag - and it wasn’t even my mum.

“You just couldn’t make this up.”

Speaking of the undertakers she said: “I hope they rot in hell for what they have done to people.”

First Minister John Swinney said he would look in detail about the timescale for the regulations and said what Baillie had told him about A Milne was “completely and utterly unacceptable and is heartbreaking for families who have already suffered bereavement”.

He stated: “The conduct is reprehensible.”

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A Police Scotland spokesperson said: "Police have concluded their search of a former funeral parlour in Balornock Road, Glasgow.

"Between Friday, 3 May, 2024 and Tuesday, 14 May, 2024, officers, including specialist search teams, carried out a detailed examination of the premises as part of an ongoing investigation into the storage and return of cremated remains and allegations of financial misconduct.

"Enquiries are ongoing to establish any criminality."

Detective Inspector Gerry Shovlin, Clydebank CID, said: "This is a very sensitive and emotive case and we recognise the upset and distress that families have experienced.

"Our investigation has been going on for several weeks now and will continue for some time, due to the level of enquiry that will need to be followed up.

"It is a complex inquiry that involves a number of agencies but families can be reassured that the ashes of their loved ones are a priority and will be treated with the utmost respect."

If you wish to contact police with regard to this investigation, then please call officers via 101 quoting incident number 1289 of 2 May 2024 or contact Police Scotland via the dedicated enquiry email address at Operationkoine@scotland.police.uk

The Daily Record tried to contact A Milne for comment.

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