Family Claims Loved One's Body After Mix-Up

SAN FRANCISCO -- The body of an East Palo Alto man was returned to family members Monday afternoon after going halfway around the world.

The family of Roberto Casaneda, 68, went to Delta Air Lines Cargo to confirm the body that was returned to them was the right one.

The incident started Thursday when the body of Robert Castaneda, 68, was mistakenly flown to Greece instead of his hometown in Mexico for burial.

Instead of finding Castaneda's body in the casket that arrived in his hometown of Apatzingan in the Mexican state of Michoacan, grieving relatives found the body of a black man with a cigar and a book with a picture of the World Trade Center on the cover.

Castaneda was nowhere to be found. A relative in Mexico immediately phoned family members in East Palo Alto to say Castaneda's body was missing.

Luis Quinones, Castaneda's son-in-law, flew on the Mexicana Airlines flight to Mexico with Castaneda's body, and said that the original casket was silver and that the one that arrived in Mexico was gold and brown.

Quinones said Monday the family was extremely upset over the mix-up. He said he had to take extraordinary steps to prove to Jones Mortuary in East Palo Alto that the body that arrived in Mexico was not his father's.

"I took some pictures of the dead man to prove to them that it was not (Castaneda)," Quinones said.

Neither the funeral home nor the airline has admitted any wrongdoing, Quinones said.

"They didn't apologize for anything," Quinones said.

The family had raised about $8,000 in donations from neighbors to pay for the travel costs and burial expenses and suddenly had no idea where the body was -- until Sunday, when Delta Air Lines officials called the family to inform them that Castaneda's body had been located in Greece.

Castaneda's body was flown back from Greece to New York, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

The other deceased man that ended up in Mexico was supposed to go to Ethiopia.