HAINES CITY — Winston Miles isn’t in a hurry to die any time soon, but what he thought would be his final resting spot is currently occupied.
As he has been doing regularly since his wife’s death in August 2010, Miles, of Davenport, went to visit her gravesite at Forest Hills Cemetery following Hurricane Irma in September to make sure everything was in place. What he found was someone else buried in the place at the cemetery that he thought would be his.
“This has my family broken up,” Miles said. “To see someone else where I was supposed to be at, it hurts.”
According to city records, his wife, Mary Miles, purchased four lots in 1981 and four more in 1984 – all at the price of $100 apiece. City records also show her selling three back to the city on May 4, 1992 at the price of $1 each. Burial plots now cost $600 each.
“She would have told us if she had sold them back,” Miles said. “There’s no way she would have sold it back on the day before our wedding anniversary.”
City Clerk Linda Bourgeois said there were legal reasons behind putting $1 on the documents for plots that are bought back, but that the city actually buys burial plots back at the same price for which it was purchased, minus a “recording fee.” What Mary Miles would have received back for the three spots, Bourgeois said, was a little more than $292.
Miles said his late wife bought the first set of plots in following the death of her son, Robert “Bobby” Pfhistner, who died in a car accident in October of that year. He was the second of three sons that Mary Miles would lose tragically in less than a five-year period.
The first of the three, Donald Pfhistner died in a car accident in May 1977. The third, Leroy or “Skip” Pfhistner, was stabbed and killed at a traffic light in Winter Haven following a 1983 road rage incident. He was 27 years old. Donald and Bobby Pfhistner were each 20 when they died.
“She would have been a mental patient if it wasn’t for the grace of God,” Miles said of his late wife.
Winston Miles once thought that his wife’s signature may have been forged, but now thinks the issue with the burial plots is simply a misunderstanding.
“Over the years, problems have arisen with the cemetery, because records kept over 100 years are different than the computerized records we have now,” Haines City Attorney Fred Reilly said. “Whenever there’s been a discrepancy, we’ve worked to solve the problem. In most cases, we’re able to come up with something that’s fair and equitable.”
The initial burial plan, according to Winston Miles, was for him and his late wife to be buried beneath her three sons. The eight total plots were two aligned rows of four.
When Mary Miles passed, her surviving husband decided it was be best to put her next to her sons and have him buried at her foot once he died. From there, the three remaining plots would go to family members who passed. The couple had no children together, but five total surviving.
When her first son died, Mary Miles had the last name Pfhistner, but city records show no records of any initial purchase. Winston and Mary Miles were married in May 1979. After Bobby Pfhistner died, Miles said Donald Pfhistner was moved next to his brother from another part of the cemetery.
Winston Miles said it’s possible that his wife was trying to sell plots where Donald was initially located, but he doesn’t know how many and again, the city could find no records. Mary Miles’ first recorded burial plot purchase came on Dec. 3, 1981 — more than four and a half years after Donald Pfhinster’s death.
“To me, they’re not going to admit to making a mistake,” Miles said. “We bought all eight of these, so the family could be together.”
Miles presented the city with photos from the first deceased son’s funeral, but city officials say that judging from other headstones in the background, it appears that Donald Pfhinster remains in the same location.
“We really did our due diligence,” Bourgeois said. “We even reached out to Oak Ridge (Funeral Home) and they have no record of moving him and no coordinates for where he was buried. There is no evidence.”
Robert Nettleton, who was city attorney in 1992 when Mary Miles sold back the plots, could not be reached. Miles said he was initially referred to a Kissimmee attorney named Charles Moore, but Moore wouldn’t take the case because of a friendship with Nettleton. Miles said he didn’t have the money to pursue another attorney.
“If there’s a discrepancy or a problem, I’d like to be given the opportunity to solve it,” Reilly said. “There are times where the courts aren’t the ideal situation to solve a problem.”
Bourgeois said when Miles first walked into City Hall to discuss the matter, there was mention of an attorney. The city policy is that if an attorney is involved, the complainant’s communication with the city must go through the city attorney.
Miles said he would not be interested in being buried at a different place in the cemetery. Currently at the location Winston Miles thought would once be his is a joint headstone for Jacob and Katherine Sommerlot, who died in October 2016 and January 2017, respectively.
Bourgeois said Mary Miles was inadvertently buried in one of the three spots that she allegedly sold back and offered to move her to one of the two remaining spots she owns underneath Leroy and Robert Pfhinster. Winston Miles, she said, could have been buried next to her.
“He doesn’t technically even own the spaces, since his name isn’t on the deed,” Bourgeois said of Winston Miles. “As the heir, we were going to transfer the deeds into his name. I really wish we could have come to some kind of agreement.”
Bourgeois said Miles has been given the option of buying the lot where Mary Miles is currently buried and the city-owned lot beneath where Donald is currently buried, but that’s $1,200 that Winston Miles doesn’t have. Bourgeois said there are no places in the immediate area of the cemetery where three vacant lots in a row are currently available.
“Get the Somerlots moved and let me have my family back together,” Miles said. “Everything was done in 1984. It’s like having a ball of fire hit you right in the face. As far as I’m concerned, they’re taking advantage of a dead person.”
When asked for a generalization, Keith Fields, funeral director for Oak Ridge Funeral Care in Winter Haven, estimated that the cost for digging and moving graves would likely be between $1,500 and $2,000, but added a third party would be needed to move the graves. The city would have been willing to take up the moving costs for Mary Miles had her widower agreed.
“I would just like to have what I bought and what my wife and I paid for,” Miles said. “I’m going to be buried at the foot of my wife even if they have to stack (headstones) 20 feet high.”
Mike Ferguson can be reached at Mike.Ferguson@theledger.com or 863-401-6981. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson.