Family of Glenn Foster suing funeral home over handling of ex-NFL player’s remains

The family of Glenn Foster Jr. filed a lawsuit on Thursday claiming that a funeral home failed to properly care for the former NFL player’s remains.

The suit, which was filed by Foster’s widow Anny Pamela Foster, accuses funeral home Carriage Services of failing to properly embalm and care for Foster’s remains, according to a press release that was provided to Larry Brown Sports. The funeral home is also accused of destroying Foster’s brain without consent after the family wanted to have it examined for signs of CTE.

Foster, who played for the New Orleans Saints in 2013 and 2014, died last December while in police custody. He had been arrested in Pickens County, Ala., on charges of reckless endangerment, resisting arrest and attempting to elude police.

Foster’s family had made arrangements after his arrest to have him sent to a hospital in Birmingham for a mental evaluation. Foster was then re-booked on three felony counts of assault and one of third-degree robbery stemming from an alleged fight with a fellow inmate.

While he was being handcuffed for the alleged altercation, police say Foster tried to fight off a correctional officer and injured the deputy’s nose and hand. The following day, deputies brought Foster to a hospital in Northport, Ala., that is closer to the jail. He was unresponsive in the police car and pronounced dead shortly after arriving.

Foster’s family says an autopsy has shown he did not die of natural causes. They believe Foster was suffering from a manic episode before he died and needed medical attention. The Pickens County Sheriff’s Department has not shared any findings of its investigation into Foster’s death.

Foster, who was 31 when he died, signed with the Saints as an undrafted free agent out of Illinois in 2013. He was injured midway through the 2014 season and cut the following offseason.