At her son’s funeral, the mother opened the coffin to see him one last time — but when the lid was lifted, her face turned pale, and she immediately called the police.
The church was silent except for the faint creak of wood and the soft sniffles echoing under the vaulted ceiling. Candles flickered along the aisle, casting trembling shadows on the polished coffin at the front. “Just one last look,” whispered Linda Parker, her trembling fingers gripping the edge of the lid. Her 19-year-old son, Ethan, had died in a supposed car accident two days ago — a hit-and-run that police said left his body “severely damaged.”
Everyone told her not to open it. “It’s better to remember him as he was,” the funeral director had said gently. But a mother’s heart doesn’t obey reason. She needed to see him — to say goodbye properly.
