Grieving daughter fears she 'kissed an empty coffin' at her father's funeral - ... trends now

A grieving daughter fears she may have kissed her father's empty coffin after the funeral directors used by her family came under investigation.

Police removed 34 bodies from Legacy Independent Funeral Directors on Hessle Road in Hull on Sunday amid 'concern for care of the deceased'. 

Mother-of-three Billie Jo Suffill, 33, used the firm for the cremations of both her father and brother, who tragically died five days apart in 2022.

She said her tearful farewell to her father Andy Suffill when his life was cut tragically short at the age of 52 on July 9 2022.

In a tragic twist, his son Dwane - Miss Suffill's brother - took his life five days later on July 14 2022 after finding his father's body. Dwane had suffered from mental health problems after losing his mother around seven years prior.

Speaking about her father's death, Miss Suffill said: 'I never actually got to see my dad's body. I wanted to see him dressed in his new clothes but I never got to.'

She added: 'I bet my dad was not even in the coffin - it was an empty coffin. I was kissing an empty coffin. When I think about it now it is disgusting.'

Mr Suffill died after he was attacked by two men the night before and took some tablets in the house he shared with his Dwane.

Dwane went down to check on his father and found him dead. He was overcome with grief and took an overdose five days later. An inquest concluded it was suicide.

Legacy offered to handle both funerals for about £2,000 each and boss Rob Bush said he was 'not in a rush' for the money.

Miss Suffil said: 'Mr Bush said he did not look the same because he had been attacked the night before he died. He would not let me see my brother at all, saying the body would smell up the room.'

Due to the funding difficulties, it was five months before Mr Suffill snr's funeral took at the firm's Hessle Road HQ in December 2022.

Mr Bush tried to persuade her to have both services at the funeral parlour rather than the crematorium.

But she insisted on having separate services with her brother's taking place at the crematorium. She agreed her father's could take place at the funeral parlour.

She said: 'I got ashes after my brother's funeral. But now I don't even know if they are his ashes and I never got any from my dad.'

Miss Suffill continued: 'At the time I could not thank Rob enough. I was so vulnerable. He has proper taken advantage of me.

'I have lost everyone my mum, my nan, my dad. I have had a lot of losses in seven years and two of them five days apart.

'I feel like I handed my dad over on a plate. I was heartbroken. I do not know how I raised all that money and now it looks like it might have been for nothing.

'He had to pay for my brother's cremation because I insisted we had it at the crematorium. He tried me to persuade me to have a double funeral at the funeral home but I said 'No'.

'I wanted my brother's funeral at a proper chapel. He was my best friend and it broke my heart when he died.