Sylvia Osler’s daughter said: ‘What he took from us was irreplaceable’
Sylvia Osler
On Friday, July 31 2026, Hull funeral director Robert Bush was jailed for 20 years.
The 48-year-old left bodies to decompose at Legacy Independent Funeral Directors’ premises in the city, gave bereaved families the ashes of other people and stole money donated from collections at funerals.The “horror” and revulsion felt by the families who had lost loved ones was revealed at Hull Crown Court during a series of powerful and harrowing victim statements during the first four days of the five-day sentencing hearing.
Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing those statements – from families who had cruelly been taken advantage of when they were at their most vulnerable. Their stories need to be told, and we will ensure that they are, for as long as it takes.
I am the daughter of the late Sylvia Osler, who passed away on 3rd January 2023. I am making this statement in relation to the Legacy Funeral Home investigation.
I first became aware of what was happening when I saw it on Facebook. I rang my brother to ask if he had seen what was on the TV.
When a loved one dies, your world falls apart. But the one thing you shouldn’t have to worry about is their safekeeping. You trust – without question – that the funeral home will look after them with dignity and respect. That trust is supposed to be absolute. We believed that. We relied on that. And Bush shattered it.
Bush was never in the building when we first went to view my mam. We had to wait outside because he wasn’t there for our appointment.
The second time, I took my best friend and arrived at 1pm the day before the funeral, and again the building was locked. Bush eventually arrived late, running with sandwiches in his hand. He rushed us out, saying he had another family coming soon, even though there were several rooms available.
My mam died on a Tuesday, and Bush picked her body up on the Thursday from Hull Royal Infirmary. My niece was due to return to university, and my brother messaged Bush to ask if she could see her nanna before leaving. Bush said they didn’t open at weekends but then allowed them to go in on the Sunday. He was in the building but not in the same room as my brother and niece..
I started questioning things when I viewed my mam. She had a bruise on her head that she did not have when she passed. When I asked Bush, he said it would be from transportation.
I had never seen a dead body before, so my dad took me. I noticed the smell immediately and kept asking my dad why it smelled like that. He tried to reassure me, saying maybe it was because it was an older building or because there were other bodies there.
Bush asked for a picture of my mam, which I sent via WhatsApp. He printed it and said he would frame it free of charge. When we later picked up the ashes, he asked if we wanted to keep the picture.
When I went to replace the frame, I discovered he had reused the picture, turned it around, and placed my mam’s photo in the front. I also have concerns about whether her rosary beads and a photo of my late sister went with her in her coffin. I will never know.
He acted so kind, telling us he moisturised my mam with Dove every day to keep her skin soft. When my brother went to collect the ashes, none of us knew that my mam was still lying in the back.
Two days later, believing Bush had cared for her, we bought him chocolates and a thank you card. My brother handed them to him on his way to work – while our mam was still there, discarded and forgotten. The thought of Bush accepting that card and gift, offering condolences, knowing full well what he had done … that haunts me. It haunts all of us.
When we collected the ashes, they were in a grey box labelled “Memoria”, but with a Legacy sticker over it. There was no paperwork. After hearing Bush had been arrested, I had so many questions. I rang Chants Ave, who gave me numbers for crematoriums he used.
Memoria confirmed they had not cremated my mam and didn’t know how he had their boxes. Rosehill confirmed they cremated her on 14th April 2023 – months after Bush told us she had been cremated.
I had felt from the beginning that something wasn’t right. At her funeral, he rushed us out, saying he was taking her straight away. I no longer believe my mam was in that coffin.
My brother later received a call from the police saying they had found a bag of ashes with our mam’s name on it. We had teddy bears made with her pyjamas and vials of ashes inside them. I had necklaces made for my children. Then the police told us the ashes were not hers.
Knowing now that she was left rotting there … there are no words for that pain. We took the incorrect ashes from the teddy bears to Lelley Fields.
When my brother came to my house and told me the bag was almost empty – only a teaspoon of ashes left – I felt sick. We shared what little there was, and I had a ring made.
Even today, we still cannot find closure. We cannot say with certainty that the ashes recovered and returned to us are truly our mam’s. That uncertainty is torture. It affects every visit to the memorial garden, every attempt to grieve, every moment we try to move forward. I go to the memorial garden every week and sit on the bench. I have to believe she is there somewhere, but it hurts knowing she may not be.
My mam wanted to be with my dad. This has broken him. He misses her every day, and it still hasn’t sunk in that she will never come home to him and her family. What Bush did has taken that from us, and there is nothing we can do to fix it.
Before my mam died, she gave my brother money to pay for her funeral with Heavenly Services. When they went bust, he got the money back. We saw Legacy had taken over and had good reviews.
Mam didn’t want flowers – she wanted a simple family service. We trusted Bush with something priceless.
The thought that we will never truly have my mam back is unbearable. As a family, we carry so much heartache. My mam never wanted to be alone – she was always with us, and that’s what she loved.
Knowing she was left alone in that place destroys me. My mam left us a letter which said: “To my beautiful family, I have left you this money so you can have a great day. I love you all with all my heart. I didn’t want to leave you, but I will see you later. Look after each other, be happy, look after Dad. I hope I have been a good mother and partner. PS if there is enough, would you get me some balloons to let go when I get cremated. Love you so much, I will miss you so much. Mam”.
We bought 100 helium balloons. We let half off at Legacy because Bush let us store them in the waiting room, and the other half at home with close family.
No prison sentence can ever truly deliver justice for what Bush has done. His actions didn’t just break rules – they broke families. They broke trust. They broke something inside each of us that cannot be repaired. What he took from us is irreplaceable, and the impact will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
Kelly Robinson