HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, Fla. — Grieving parents claim they spent thousands of dollars on a memorial from a Hillsborough County company, but after waiting 5 and a half years they have nothing to show for it.
Kevin and Sheila Tanner’s living room is filled with pictures of their son, Dyllan.
“We have great memories,” Kevin Tanner said. “I’d take him to the movies every Saturday morning.”
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Dyllan was born with muscular dystrophy.
“He stopped walking when he was about 10 years old and was in a wheelchair,” Kevin Tanner said.
“We knew that we were going to lose him.”
After Dyllan died in 2019, his parents bought the grave site next to his as a way to keep their family together.
“That way nobody else will be able to be buried there,” Kevin Tanner explained.
The Tanners hired the same company they used to make Dyllan’s headstone, Mastercraft Memorials, based in Plant City. They provided Tampa Bay 28 with the receipt showing they paid $2,345.
That was in March 2020, then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
“She first told us hey we can’t get the granite to make the stones because of COVID, that was understandable,” Kevin Tanner said.
Months turned into years, and by five and a half years later, the Tanners were fed up.
“Never any phone calls back, several emails, no emails back,” Sheila Tanner explained. “There’s nothing they don’t contact us at all.”
After reaching out without a response, Consumer Investigator Susan El Khoury stopped by Mastercraft Memorials and spoke with the owner, Dawn Cline.
“We have their monument, and we have a picture of it needs to be approved and their design,” Cline said.
When asked what caused the delay, Cline responded, “I’m not sure why it’s taken that long.”
“It could have been a breakdown in communication but I will call [Sheila Tanners] today and make sure she has everything she needs to approve it,” Cline said.
Cline showed Tampa Bay 28 the Tanner’s stone, which she explained had been in stock for a year.
“I’ll reach out to her today and see if there is anything she needs and try to get it done for her,” Cline said.
About a week later, the Tanners had their spot marked.
“All I can do is say thank you because it wasn’t going to happen without you,” Kevin Tanner said. “Now I sleep at night knowing it’s here and I will be buried next to my son.”
“We give people that opportunity to really learn those lessons from the holocaust, to hear from survivors, to be able to see physical evidence.”
Tampa Bay 28 reporter Casey Albritton visited the soon-to-be reopened Florida Holocaust Museum
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