A New Jersey woman is suing the funeral home tasked with burying her father’s remains after learning his ashes instead sat collecting dust in the business’s basement for three decades.

Debbie Uraga, 69, and her family had unknowingly been visiting an empty gravesite at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Middletown for 31 years since her dad died in 1993, she told News 12.

Uraga had long believed that her father, George Jonas — a military veteran — was buried alongside her mother, sister, and brother in the family’s plot.

“I’d go see him on Father’s Day and his birthday – and even the VFW, because he was a vet, they would put the flag on the grave. It’s like we all thought he was there,” Uraga told the local outlet.

However, in June, she was contacted by a man with an organization that retrieves unclaimed veterans’ remains to give them proper burials. The man shockingly told her he found her father’s remains inside a box in the basement of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home.

The news was devastating to Uraga.

“It hurts a lot,” she said. “I thought he was there and it’s like it’s just unbelievable. My father should be in the cemetery with the rest of his family.”

Uraga says in 1993, the funeral home assured her that he father had been laid to rest in the cemetery with her family.

“They just said they agreed that they would bury him,” she said.

The family has now filed a lawsuit against Mount Olivet Cemetery and the John F. Pfleger Funeral Home to hold them accountable and ensure no other families will have to endure the heartbreak they have felt upon the discovery.

The owner of John F. Pfleger Funeral Home says Jonas’ cremation and services were handled with the utmost care and that they had tried contacting Uraga about the status of her father’s remains numerous times, according to WCBS.

“All attempts by our funeral home to seek final disposition instructions from the Jonas family’s next of kin remained unanswered until we attempted to provide an honorable burial of this man’s cremated remains in our state’s veteran cemetery,” a funeral home representative said in a statement to the station.

But Uraga disputed their claim.

“That’s false. Nobody ever contacted me,” she shot back.

Uraga said she only lives about five minutes from the funeral home and wasn’t hard to track down if they had attempted to reach her about her father’s remains.

The devastated daughter said she now has the box with her father’s remains, as well as the cremation certificate that has her name and address.

She hopes that now that she has her father’s remains back, he can finally be laid to rest properly.

“Finally, after 31 years, maybe he could rest,” Uraga told News 12.

“You know, like they say, ‘Rest in peace.’ But how is he resting in peace if he is in the basement?”

A 31-year-old New Jersey man was killed after three tractor-trailers were involved in a crash on Interstate 81 near Union Township Saturday morning, according to Pennsylvania State Police.

The crash occurred at 4:07 a.m. as a 2017 Hino 268 was traveling northbound in the right lane of I-81 at mile-marker 87.5 near the Fort Indiantown Gap exit. Police said the tractor-trailer left the roadway on the right shoulder, and struck a legally parked 2016 Cascadia freightliner.

Adrian Jemmott, of Trenton, New Jersey, was sitting in the right side front passenger seat of the 2017 Hino. He was ejected through the windshield after impact with the freightliner. At the time of the crash, the freightliner was unoccupied.

“It is unknown if (Jemmott) was wearing his seatbelt due to the significant damage to the entirety of the right side of the vehicle,” police said in a release Sunday afternoon.

Jemmott was pronounced deceased on scene by the Lebanon County Coroner’s Office.

John Concepcion, 35, of Hamilton Township, New Jersey, was driving the 2017 Hino at the time. Police said he was wearing his seatbelt and suffered suspected injuries to the entirety of his body.

After Concepcion’s truck struck the left rear of the freightliner, the back end entered the left lane of travel. That’s when a second 2017 Hino 268 tractor-trailer, driven by Desmond Crawley, 32, of Trenton, New Jersey, struck the rear end of Concepcion’s truck.

Concepcion and Crawley were both transported by Penn State Health Life Lion EMS to the Hershey Medical Center. Police said Crawley was wearing his seatbelt and sustained minor injuries.

Police closed the northbound lanes of I-81 for more than eight hours on Saturday, Aug. 3. Officers said Concepcion has received a citation for the crash.

Matthew Toth is a reporter for the Lebanon Daily News. Reach him at mtoth@ldnews.com or on X at @DAMattToth.

Brooklyn-based studio Osso Architecture has built a pool house on a New Jersey horse farm, utilising standard timber framing and the skills of the local Amish community.

The pool house was completed for the owners of an equestrian farm outside Stockton, and borrowed ideas from the site’s large indoor riding arena.

This existing building is constructed primarily from standard 2×4 and 2×6 timber members, which form a truss system to span the arena.

“While not noticeable in the arena, we knew we wanted to take this key design feature and create a focal point out of it in our design,” said Osso Architecture.

Working with King Barns, an Amish team based nearby, the architects scaled down the arena’s form to create a much smaller barn-like structure.

The truss system is exposed overhead, held together by black metal plates and rivets, while longer metal elements brace the walls.

“Our design highlights the truss by bringing it down into the space and putting it on display,” Osso said.

“This required creating physical study models, 3D renderings and close collaboration with our fantastic engineer to come up with a design that is both beautiful and functional.”

Reached via a stepped wooden boardwalk that crisscrosses a meadow, the pool house contains a kitchen at the far end, a dining area in the centre, and a lounge space on the near side.

A bathroom is tucked around the back, along with an outdoor shower for rinsing off after a dip.

Sliding slated panels cover the longer sides of the structure, enabling users to open up or enclose the space as they wish.

These panels shelter the interior from the wind and sun and extend the use of the building beyond the summer months.

A floating black fireplace is suspended from the roof, and its chimney extends high above the gabled roofline that’s covered in a metal raised-seam system, contrasting the warm-toned wood beneath.

Simple hardwearing furniture is placed inside, echoing the spare and essential nature of the structure.

Pool houses typically offer more aesthetic freedom for architects than primary residences, due to their smaller size, seasonal usage and placement away from the main dwelling.

Others who have been creative with their designs include Knox Bhavan, which buried a brick pool house in Kent beneath grassy mound, and Partisans, which topped an Ontario pool house with an undulating compressed-oak roof.

The photography is by Erik Bernstein.