New York, NY: Wrong body sent to Memphis mom whose daughter was killed

MEMPHIS, TN -
(WMC-TV) - A Memphis mother whose daughter was murdered in New York City says the wrong body was shipped to her, and she can't afford to bury her daughter.

New York police say 31-year-old Lora Evans was shot and killed by her boyfriend, 29-year-old Woody Borgella.

Evans' mother, Laura, says Borgella quoted a rap song about murder three days before her daughter's death. The NYPD charged him with murder and criminal weapon possession.

"My understanding is that they were arguing about money that he had taken from her purse," she said.

Laura Evans said her daughter graduated from the University of Memphis and moved to New York to pursue a career as a music producer.

"I can't describe how I feel right now knowing this happened," she said. "Right now I just feel like a mother should feel when her child got killed over a senseless nothing."

On top of dealing with her daughter's death, Evans then found out her daughter's body hadn't arrived in Memphis when the New York funeral home said it would.

"Come to find out there was a new person on duty and they put the wrong tag on the wrong some thing." she said. "It was devastating knowing she was laying there and I couldn't do anything."

The mistake was caught in Chicago, and Lora Evan's body arrived in Memphis a day late.

"I'm going to forgive them even though it was a mistake, because we are all humans and we all make mistakes," Laura Evans said. "I've got some kind of closure now that my baby is home and we've had a funeral."

The owner of the funeral home that made the mistake was not available for comment Monday.

Meanwhile, Laura Evans doesn't have complete closure, because she doesn't have enough money to bury her daughter. There is an account set up at First Tennessee Bank, for the benefit of Lora Evans.