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Man Tries For Hours To Get Mortuary To Pick Up His Mother's Remains

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) - Dealing with a death in the family is a difficult and emotional process. When James Smith's mother died, it became even more upsetting after the mortuary he had contracted with didn't pick up.

"That's her when she was young," said Smith pointing out family photos.

For the past two years, James Smith's mother, Monnie Ruth LaMarca, has lived with him and his wife.

"She was your average American hard-working, family-loving mom," said Smith.

She was a nurse and had always been the one to take care of the family.

"As the day progressed she just got worse and worse," said Smith.

On Friday just before 8 p.m., LaMarca passed away.

"She was always in my life, you know," said Smith tearing up.

James called Sacramento Memorial Lawn, the mortuary his mother had contracted with 30 years ago to handle her death.

"Ringing, ringing, ringing, ringing," said Smith.

No answer.

"I kept trying for hours," he continued.

As time ticked by, Smith called the coroner.

"The coroner informed me that they don't come out for natural deaths," said Smith.

He called police, and eventually a chaplain was sent to his home.

After hours of frustrating phone calls, Smith got in contact with a different business: East Lawn Mortuary, about 15 miles away from his home.

"You want to be able to have a company that can come out and take care of everything right then," said Lisa West with East Lawn.

East lawn is not affiliated with Sacramento Memorial Lawn. They picked up LaMarca's body six hours later. And held it until the next day.

"That gives people a lot of peace of mind to know that someone available 24 hours a day 365 days a year to help them when a loved one passes away," said West.

We reached out to Sacramento Memorial Lawn. A woman who identified herself as a manager said "no comment" then continued saying "all issues are handled with the families," before hanging up.

"Today she told me that apparently what happened is their server crashed," said Smith.

Smith says there should be a backup system in place. It would have saved time and heartache.

"It was, it was a lot," said Smith hanging his head.

Smith's family is moving forward with services at Sacramento Memorial Lawn. They were not charged for the transfer.

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