A family who spent 17 years visiting their dad at the wrong grave is still searching for his body.
Tom Bell, 58, and his sisters were told the devastating news that somebody else was buried under their dad's headstone, which they had been visiting for years.
Four weeks on from the heartbreaking discovery, the family have dug up eight plots in the search for Thomas Bell's resting place.
They first discovered the shocking blunder when trying to fulfill their mum Hilda's last wishes to be buried alongside her husband.
But when gravediggers started work on the new plot, they uncovered a stranger buried in Mr Bell's place, and his coffin nowhere to be found.
His wife's body is being held at a funeral home six weeks on from her death while the search continued for her husband's body at Holy Trinity Church in Wingate, County Durham.
"We’re living on a day-to-day basis, hoping every phone call is the one to say he has been found," son Tom told the Northern Echo.
“We can’t grieve for our mum because we’re up in arms dealing with this every day.
“She deserves to be buried alongside with dad but we don’t even know where he is, and the poor soul has been in a funeral home for six weeks now.”
Tom, from Easington, and his sisters Denise, 59, and Debra, 53, sadly lost Hilda from COPD in June, when she was aged 79.
The family had planned to bury her at the Holy Trinity Church after a funeral service on July 1.
But her body had to be returned to the funeral home after the service, when they were unable to find the right place to lay her to rest.
Tom said the situation was "a mess", with staff now having to dig down to check the name plates on every coffin.
"It’s absolutely awful. There are bodies all in the wrong places," he added.
Despite digging up eight graves so far, the team is still unable to find their beloved dad.
Speaking previously, Tom said: "Losing our mam was devastating.
"And then to be told the grave of our dad we have spent the last 17 years visiting is not his is just unbearable. How could this happen?
"Our mam is lying in a funeral home waiting to be buried and our dad is somewhere in the cemetery in an unmarked grave."
The family of the man who was buried where Mr Bell's headstone stood for 17 years were also informed about the distressing mix-up.
It's understood the body was laid to rest by the funeral director, which has since gone out of business.
Durham Diocese, which now looks after burials at the Wingate graveyard, is managing the search.
A spokesperson said: “We recognise the pain and distress that the families are going through and continue to pray for them at this difficult time.
"The Diocese of Durham is working with the appropriate legal authorities to ensure that this sad situation is resolved as a matter of the upmost urgency."
