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April 30, 2006
Funeral home takes dead Marine's savings
Most funeral home directors are upright citizens who provide outstanding support for families of fallen heroes. The mortuary that handled Casey Sheehan's funeral, for example, provided much support and service to the family - the owner absorbed significant expenses himself, covering costs not paid by the Marine Corps.
There are exceptions to every rule.
Via Greyhawk, here's a situation that needs a bit of persuasive action:
Jason Sepulveda, a Marine, was training at Camp Lejune in North Carolina, preparing to go to Iraq, when in an evening off-base, he was killed in a car accident."My son died instantly and the other Marine died approximately two weeks after," said Elis Sepulveda, Jason's mother.
His parents, who spoke with him weekly, knew he had been saving his money for a long weekend when they would all be together.
"We were going on vacation for the Fourth of July to visit him," Sepulveda said. "I know he had been sacrificing because they don't get paid very much."
Jason's body was returned to Colorado for burial. Records show that the funeral was paid, in full, by the Marines. But after closing out her son's accounts, Jason's mother realized that the probate court had sent the proceeds of Jason's savings account to the funeral home, which is run by Jim Bostick.
"I called Mr. Bostick and I said, 'Well, the courts sent you my son's savings account.' He just kind of really blew me off a lot," Sepulveda said.
She said he didn't give her any receipts or bills and just kept the money.
Jason Sepulveda knew the meaning of sacrifice. The Sepulveda family lives with that meaning every day. Jim Bostick has yet to get that message. He was elected mayor of the small town of Ft Lupton, Co last year. In a letter to his constituents, he outlined a series of challenges facing the town. The letter ends with an open invitation for citizen input on upcoming issues:
There are many other issues that Fort Lupton faces and will continue to face. I encourage all citizens to please contact their council members or myself and let us know your input.
The issue of an elected official who keeps money that he is not entitled to and refuses to return it to a dead Marine's grieving family - despite court orders mandating that he do so - certainly deserves citizen input. You are cordially invited to provide that input.
E-mail: LuptonCouncil@aol.com
Phone: 303-857-4707 or 303-857-6694
Or, contact the one of the two Bostick Funeral Home locations directly:
Bostick Funeral Home
106 N 10th Ave
Brighton, CO 80601-1810
Phone: (303)659-8465
or
Bostick Funeral Home
806 Denver Ave
Fort Lupton
Colorado 80621
Phone: (303) 857-2290
While Mr. Bostick does not appear to be a member of he Colorado Funeral Director's Association, his name appears on their website. If the board has not heard of his activities yet, they will as soon as they read my e-mail to them:
In reviewing your site, I noticed that while Jim Bostick (who owns two funeral homes in Colorado) is not a COFDA member, he is listed on your site. Perhaps you are not aware that Mr. Bostick has refused to comply with a court judgement requiring him to pay back funds sent to him when a probate court mistakenly remitted the savings account of Jason Sepulveda, a Marine from Colorado who was killed in a car accident while training in North Carolina, to him. The funeral costs for Mr. Sepulveda were paid in full by the USMC, so Mr. Bostick had no claim on the funds and he knows this. However, in a recent TV interview, he refuses to either acknowledge that he owes the Sepulveda family the funds or reveal a plan for repayment.I hope that your organization will put whatever pressure you are able to exert on Mr. Bostick for his reprehensible action. Further, I hope you will remove his name from your website since its presence implies tacit recognition and approval of his business activities.
Posted by Deb at April 30, 2006 05:55 PM
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Comments
Yeah...I've read it. Maybe I need to drive there and put some sense into that men :-)
Posted by: Agnieszka O. at April 30, 2006 09:10 PM
I have sent this artical to 5 major televison stations, I hope they will act on this.
Posted by: Jannie at May 4, 2006 02:08 PM
Goes to show that some men have no honor. If I were you, I'd send this directly to FOX News, the other liberal TV out there, CSNBC, ABC, CNN, CBS, they only show what the troops do that is not correct per the law of war in the current GWOT.
For the honor and sacrifice of this young Marine, I would sue the man and then bring him to civil court for pinutive damages caused to the family and put this waste of DNA behind bars.
Posted by: Jeff Erickson (Veteran US ARMY Airborne at March 5, 2010 06:19 AM
Thanks for the sensible critique. Me and my neighbor were just preparing to do some research on this. We got a book from our local library but I think I learned more from this post. I'm very glad to see such excellent information being shared freely out there..
Posted by: Raphael Sweezer at May 9, 2011 01:29 AM