A Sacramento family is living through an unimaginable nightmare after discovering that their loved one died in a hospital, and nobody told them for months. Now, a lawsuit against Dignity Health is exposing what may be one of the most disturbing healthcare scandals in recent California history.
Tonya Walker, 51, died at Dignity Health's Mercy General Hospital on November 2, 2023. Her family was never notified. No phone call. No death certificate. Nothing. For seven months, her sisters Dalee Marez and Kalia Zachary searched desperately distributing hundreds of flyers across Sacramento, crawling through storm drains, checking roadside ditches, and even offering a $3,500 reward for information. They filed missing person reports. They begged law enforcement for help. They fell victim to scammers who exploited their desperation with false leads.
The entire time, Tonya's body was sitting in an off-site morgue.
What They Found Was Worse Than Death
In May 2024, the family finally learned the truth. When Dalee and Kalia went to view Tonya's remains at the off-site morgue, the staff actually urged them not to look. They insisted on seeing her anyway and what they found will haunt them forever.
“We identified her through the tattoo on her arm,” Dalee Marez told KCRA 3 Investigates. “Her body was in the worst condition you can imagine. Her face looked like someone put battery acid all on her face.”
Tonya's eyes and skin had been surgically removed. According to the lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, Dignity Health unilaterally decided to make Walker an organ donor even though she was not one and harvested her eyes and tissue without any permission from her family.
An Off-Site Morgue Operating Without Proper Permits
The lawsuit also targets the off-site morgue where Tonya's body was stored. The facility, officially called Mortuary Support Services of Northern California (commonly known as “Cremations Only”), is owned by Michael Robert Lofton. The filing alleges the company failed to embalm Walker's body, failed to refrigerate it at the proper temperature, and held her remains for five and a half months before obtaining the legally required storage permit. California law requires that permit within just eight calendar days.
Attorneys for Lofton called it “a very unfortunate situation” but said their client “disputes that it has any liability in this matter.”
This Is the Third Lawsuit — Same Hospital System
Here's where this goes from a tragedy to a full-blown systemic crisis. Tonya Walker's case is the third lawsuit filed against Dignity Health involving nearly identical allegations.
Jessie Peterson, 31, was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center in April 2023 for a diabetic episode. She called her mother from the ICU. Hours later, she died of cardiac arrest. The hospital never called her family instead; staff told her mother Jessie had left “against medical advice.” For an entire year, her family searched for her, filed missing person reports, and pleaded with police. In April 2024, a detective finally told them Jessie's decomposed body had been sitting in the same off-site morgue the entire time. Her remains were so deteriorated that an open casket funeral was impossible.
Michael Gray died of an accidental overdose at Mercy San Juan in 2021. Despite having his wallet and ID on him, the hospital allegedly never contacted his mother, Valerie Gray. A chaplain reportedly called the wrong number and never followed up. His mother searched for over a month before his decomposed body was found at the same morgue. That case was settled out of court.
Dozens of Bodies, Some Stored for Years
KCRA 3 Investigates uncovered probate court records showing that in 22 other cases, Dignity Health hospitals took more than a year to issue death certificates after patients died. The California Department of Public Health found that 61 deceased patients were being stored at the off-site morgue, with some bodies held for one to two years. State inspectors flagged deficiencies in family notification, death certificate processing, and remains handling as far back as 2022 yet each time, the hospital submitted a correction plan, was declared “in compliance,” and then failed to follow through.
The Sacramento County District Attorney's Office is now reportedly investigating, though a spokesperson said the office “does not comment on what we are, or are not, investigating.”
A Pattern That Demands Accountability
“They need to be held to task for the absolute nightmare that families are living, who do not know if their family members are dead or alive,” said Rachel Fiset, the attorney representing Walker's family.
This is not a one-time mistake. This is a pattern multiple families, multiple lawsuits, multiple bodies left to decompose while loved ones searched the streets in agony. The fact that a major hospital system could allegedly harvest organs without consent, hide deaths from families, and store bodies in an unlicensed facility for months raises questions that go far beyond negligence.
For the Walker, Peterson, and Gray families, no lawsuit can undo the trauma. But their fight for accountability could force the kind of systemic change that prevents the next family from living through this same horror.
This is a developing story. TheTalkLounge will continue to follow the legal proceedings and any developments from the Sacramento County DA's investigation.
What do you think, should criminal charges be filed? Drop your take in the comments below and join the conversation.
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