BLEDSOE COUNTY, Tenn. — Warning: The details in this story are disturbing.

A grieving Tennessee family wants answers after they say a local funeral home mishandled the preparation of their teen for his funeral service.

Money tells us they initially planned and signed for an open casket funeral. She says Aiden was an organ donor, and she was told his donations to save lives would not affect whether his casket could be open.

“They’re not accepting any responsibility for anything,” she told us on Tuesday.

Money says the Reed-Putnam funeral home later told her that the damage from Aiden’s organ donation made the embalming process more difficult.

“She decided that not only did we need to close the casket, we also needed to remove the casket from the chapel and put a duplicate empty casket in his place.”

Because of the odor, they had to have an empty casket at the service while Aiden’s body sat in a casket in a hearse outside.

“You could smell the odor,” Money says.

Family friend Stephen Fernandez, a registered nurse, couldn’t believe it.

“So you’re telling me that they let that body sit in the casket at room temperature from Monday all the way to the first viewing, which was scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm at room temperature, knowing that they didn’t get that body embalmed correctly? That is a huge ethics violation.”

Fernandez added…

“I went to bury Aiden with my tractor, actually put the dirt over his grave, and you could smell the odor coming from outside that concrete vault that they had put him in.”

The family has filed a complaint with the state.

Money tells us the embalming report she received doesn’t have odor marked.

“When we asked the funeral home why it wasn’t marked. That’s when she told us, ‘well, everybody has an odor.’ But I’ve never smelled an odor like that in my life.”

Money says her entire family was traumatized by the incident, and that her family’s last memory of Aiden was the awful smell.

Kayleigh Pearson, Aiden’s younger sister, says…

“I know a lot of my family didn’t want that to be the last memory. That scent is haunting us.”

We have attempted to contact the Putnam-Reed funeral home to get their side of the story by email and phone.

Putnam-Reed Funeral Home Director Heather Reed-Poston wouldn’t’ speak to us directly.

But after our report, their attorney responded, saying…

“Heather has addressed concerns expressed by Aiden’s mother… Aiden was treated with love and dignity.”

We’ve also reached out to the state of Tennessee Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers, which is under the Department of Commerce, to learn more about the complaint Aiden’s family filed.