By Linda Kor The City of Winslow is investigating an incident in which a local woman, who was buried in the city cemetery in January, was inadvertently buried in the wrong gravesite. When Teresa Jaramillo passed away, her daughter, Catherine Estudillo, went to the city offices to purchase a plot for her mother, then decided to purchase two more, one for herself and one for her husband, adjacent to Mrs. Jaramillo’s plot. Two months after the burial, the city notified the family that Mrs. Jaramillo had been buried in a location other than the one purchased by Estudillo. According to an investigation done by City Manager Steve Pauken, the incident was a result of a miscommunication by city employees. “Different family members had spoken to Peggy Wilson at city hall and Gene Hawn (the cemetery sexton) at the cemetery regarding which gravesite was to be used.” As a result, Mrs. Jaramillo was buried in the correct row, but 40 yards from the purchased plot. The family, upset over the incident, was told that the two other plots purchased by Estudillo could be moved to where Mrs. Jaramillo was buried, but insisted that their mother’s casket be removed from the location and placed in the original gravesite selected by Estudillo. The exhumation was set for March 24 and the family was told that they would need to remain outside the cemetery gates until the exhumation was complete for safety reasons. As the family gathered outside the fence, the procedure took longer than planned and, according to another of Mrs. Jaramillo’s daughters, Mary Ann Chavez, they stood outside the gate for an hour and a half waiting for workers to be done so that a priest could bless the new site. “We were very upset. We just wanted her to be treated with dignity and respect. We were taking photos of the workers through the fence and we were told we couldn’t because there were prisoners doing the work. They even called the police, but the officer told us we were within our rights to take the photos,” explained Chavez. The gates were finally opened in order to allow another funeral procession to enter and the family went to the gravesite. Chavez said the prisoners transporting the casket had difficulty keeping it level. “It wasn’t really dropped, but it slipped down. It was at that point that I saw water gushing from inside the casket,” she said. The casket also showed a dent on the top to one side. When asked about the circumstances, Pauken stated that when the family requested that Mrs. Jaramillo’s remains be moved to the original location, he informed them that it would be an unpleasant situation. “The casket was not sealed in a vault and damage had taken place to the casket, during both the original burial and the disinterment. Additionally, a well-known high level of ground water in the area, plus the use of water to clean the casket after disinterment, contributed to the appearance of water ‘gushing from the casket,’ that had been alleged by a family member,” stated Pauken. Chavez noted that the incident has created a problem within the family. “We know that no one in the family told them to dig the hole in the wrong location, but there are still some who are upset that something was said. It’s been hard on our family,” she said. According to Pauken, Estudillo also insists that a water line was broken in the area, resulting in the water in the grave, and has asked the city to reopen the site where Mrs. Jaramillo had been buried in order to prove it. “I informed her that we had already opened the grave twice and that ground level in the cemetery was high enough to cause water in the graves if they were not in a vault,” Pauken noted. Now that Mrs. Jaramillo has been laid to rest in the location requested by the family, Chavez was asked what other outcome the family would like from the city “I don’t know what’s going to happen. We want to know why. This has caused so many problems within the family, we just want my mother to be at peace,” she said.