Son attending mum's funeral finds stranger dressed in her clothes and jewelry in casket

A grieving son attending his mum's funeral was horrified to look into the casket and see a stranger buried in her clothes and jewelry.

Dr Jerry Bowman realised the appalling mistake when he arrived at the Alexander Funeral Home in Charlotte, North Carolina, US, and saw the woman in the coffin wasn’t his mum, Catherine White, 75.

The woman in the casket was actually Elease McInnis, 91, who had died in the same city a day earlier.

Both women were taken to the Alexander Funeral Home to be prepared for their burials.

But Ms McInnis was then dressed in clothes and jewelry belonging to Ms White, and laid out in her casket.

As a result of the same blunder, Ms McInnis' unsuspecting relatives then held a burial service on July 2 and mistakenly laid Ms White to rest.

A relative said that some loved ones noted that Ms McInnis looked different during her funeral, but they assumed it was due to the embalming process.

The family member told reporters they were 'embarrassed and heartbroken' about the mixup.

Ms White's family arrived at her funeral last week and saw Ms McInnis in her casket dressed in her jewelry and clothes (Fox46)

Dr Bowman was appalled by the mix up that led to his mother being buried by another family (Fox46)

Dr Bowman had been a full-time carer for his elderly mum for the last four months before she passed away from terminal cancer on June 26, and was just as appalled.

“I knew what she looked like the minute she left my home at 1.11am on June the 26 this year,” the ER doctor said.

“She doesn’t deserve this. Nobody deserves anything like this."

Ms McInnis' family had laid Ms White to rest in a service on July 2 by mistake (Fox46)

Ms White's body will now have to be exhumed from York Memorial Park with the permission of the McInnis family.

The owners of Alexander Funeral Home, which has been in operation since 1914, has yet to comment about the apparent mistake.