MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A South Florida woman says her mother’s ashes are gone, possibly discarded by a car rental company following a crash on Interstate 95.
Daresha Garmon says she was promised they would be returned, but says she was misled and lied to, and now she’s taking aim at the car rental company she claims ignored her pleas for help.
“I lost my mom when I was 7 years old. She was killed,” Garmon explained to Local 10 investigative reporter Jeff Weinsier. “There was a drive-by shooting where my father’s brother, he died on the scene. My mom died three days later in the hospital.”
That was in 2000.
On her 18th birthday, Garmon’s grandmother gave her her mother’s ashes in an urn.
Today, Garmon is 29 years old.
“I had her urn to have to just sit on my counter and go everywhere with me,” Garmon said. “It made me have a sense of peace that I at least had a part of her with me.”
Livia Alexander was 33 years old when she was killed. Garmon created a shrine in her home in honor of her mother.
“I had the cube there, I had her picture there and I had flowers there -- it was like I had made my own memorial for her,” Garmon told Weinsier. “My daughter would go kiss the cube and she was like, ‘Hi grandma.’ Now the cube isn’t there and they are like, ‘Where is grandma?’”
Now grandma appears to be gone forever with no explanation.
Garmon said she was in the process of moving when she was driving her Enterprise rental car south on I-95 in Miami-Dade County with the urn in the vehicle.
All of a sudden, another vehicle crossed over the express lane poles and into her path.
“The car spun around -- it was a bad situation,” Garmon said. “I had hit my head, I was bleeding, the airbag had deployed on me and everything.”
Garmon was taken to a hospital after the crash.
“I got out of the hospital and immediately the next morning, I reached out to Enterprise,” she said. “I told her, ‘I need to get my mom’s urn out of the car. My mom’s urn is in the car.’ She said, ‘OK, no problem. I’ll make sure it is taken care of.’”
Garmon says day after day, there was no response from an Enterprise branch manager she was dealing with.
“I called at least 25 times,” Garmon said. “She just like, ‘Everything will be fine. Everything is gonna be in the car. Everything will be there. Everything will be documented.’ That is what she said.”
Weeks turned into months with no urn and only promises that it would be returned.
Garmon says only after she threatened to sue did branch manager Cheetara Brunson call her back.
“She said, ‘Well, the car has been auctioned off.’ I said, ‘What?!’” Garmon told Weinsier. “She said, ‘The car was auctioned off.’ I said, ‘What do you mean?’ I just hung up and went to the branch immediately. I said, ‘What do you mean? Look me in the face and tell me the car was auctioned off.’ I said, ‘Where is my stuff?’ ‘We don’t know.’”
“You can’t really put a price on it,” attorney Daren Stabinski said. “Florida law allows a jury to consider sentimental value.”
Stabinski is representing Garmon in a lawsuit filed against Enterprise.
In court papers, Enterprise claims they are not responsible for anything customers leave in the car.
“My client did not leave items in the car,” Stabinksi said. “She was taken for medical treatment after an accident and Enterprise took possession of her property. That is very different from leaving something in a car.”
In a statement to Local 10 News, a spokesperson for Enterprise Rent-a-Car said “We have no comment on pending litigation.”
“It’s like I lost her again,” Garmon said. “It is like now I have nothing. I don’t have a grave site to go and visit – I’m just hurt. I feel empty, I feel lost.”
The two sides are now headed to court-ordered mediation. We will keep you posted on the outcome of the case.