A family's attempt to locate the burial spot of their relative at Meadowrest Memorial Gardens recently turned into a wild-goose chase after the plaque bearing their loved one's name was placed on an empty grave.

THE STAR understands that after numerous attempts to locate the grave of their loved one, family members became angered with the interment providers.

In response to the family's complaint, managing director of Meadowrest, S. Leroi Lorde, conceded that an error had been made but it was corrected.

He explained that the plaque with the deceased name was inadvertently placed on an empty grave behind the actual burial spot where the deceased was laid to rest.

"The wrong number was placed on the plaque and therefore the plaque was placed in the wrong place," Lorde said

But for the family, the fact that they could not locate their loved one was too much to bear.

"Our mother was dear to us.We went to the cemetery to visit her because it was her birthday and when we got there, we could not find her," one of the daughters of the deceased said.

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"Meadowrest had told us that three months after she was buried, the headstone would have been placed. But a year later, there was nothing there," she continued.

At the same time, finance and administration manager, Kenny Myers, reiterated, "It was an error of omission. The plaque was mistakenly placed on an empty vault close to where the deceased was buried."

"The error was made from the beginning and that's why it wasn't caught. When a person is interred, the number is recorded. Now for whatever reason, they made the wrong one," Myers added.

Meanwhile, Lorde assured our news team that every complaint is taken fervently, and steps taken to resolve them without delay.

"Be assured that every complaint is taken seriously by us.We are not just here to bury people ... we try to make sure that they get a good burial spot and that the grave is taken care of."

He also highlighted that there are cataloguing systems in place to ensure that each grave can be easily located including a blueprint layout of the cemetery which is placed on the wall in the head office.

"We have index card systems that have the names of the deceased and the vault numbers.We also have numerical listings for all of our vaults for checks and balances," Lorde said.