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Call Kurtis: Wedding Venue Decides To Issue Refund After Woman's Fiancé Dies

AUBURN (CBS13) - Amanda-Rose Smith was surprised, because she had finally received the refunded money she needed to bury her fiance's ashes, more than eight months after he died.

"I was shocked; I actually did cry a little bit," she said. "I've been wanting to bury my fiancé."

In January, Amanda's fiancé, Bryson, was killed trying to cross I-80 after his car broke down. CBS13 was on scene the day of the tragic accident.

The ceremony was supposed to happen on Aug. 16th.

They had paid the Powers Mansion Inn, in Auburn, $5,999.

Just a week after Bryson's death, Amanda said she called owner, Alfred Lee, to cancel.

"Alfred had said that the money had already been spent that he had already ordered the food for the wedding." She said.

That was eight months before the wedding. Amanda said Alfred told her he would work to give her money back – only if he could rebook her date.

But as August approached, Amanda said couldn't get ahold of Alfred.

"I've been trying to contact him and contact him," she said.

When we called Alfred, he hung up on our producer. So, we stopped by the Powers Mansion Inn. But, he didn't want to talk with us.

We caught up with him at small claims court the day Amanda went to file her lawsuit against him

"Why won't you talk to us?" A CBS13 producer asked Alfred.

After initially running away, he agreed to talk with our producer.

"I'm not lacking compassion," he said.

He admitted to having major money trouble, which is why he was at court that day. But then he told us that he wanted to return Amanda's money, if he didn't go bankrupt first.

"The whole refund, that's the absolute goal." Alfred said.

And within a week of our initial our story airing, Amanda had the full amount of $5,999.

"I'm just happy Alfred finally did the right thing [and] returned the money to me, so I could do what I wanted to do for eight months," Amanda said.

She was finally able to buy a burial plot and memorial marker for Bryson's ashes.

"I wanted him to have a place so anyone who loved or cared about him had a place they could come visit him."

Alfred wrote in an email to Amanda, that is was "on moral grounds" that he decided to refund her.

Amanda has since dropped her small claims court case against Alfred and Power's Mansion Inn.

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