A Colorado man made a promise to his dying mother. A promise he says he can't keep because of a mistake by the mortuary.

Colorado is the only state in the U.S. that does not regulate the funeral industry, leaving Randy Goddard with little choice other than going to court.

Goddard says his mother's final wish was to have her ashes spread over her husband's grave.

She died from Lou Gehrig's disease on Valentine's Day in 2005.

A week after her death, Goddard went to the mortuary to pick up her ashes.

"I feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that those are not my mom's ashes," Goddard told CALL7 Investigator Tony Kovaleski.

Goddard said, "They handed me a watch with a tag, like a wrist band, with my mother's name on it. I told him my mom didn't have a watch. I think we have a problem."

Martha Thayer teaches mortuary science and has written books on end of life decisions. She is expected to testify in Goddard's trial.

Kovaleski asked Thayer, "Is that just a simple mistake?"

Thayer replied, "I don't know how it could be a mistake because it is the burden of the funeral home to make sure that they are identifying and keeping track of the remains from the point that the person is transferred from the place of death to the funeral home."

Although there is no scientific way to absolutely confirm if the cremated remains are those of Francis Goddard, an inspection of the ashes uncovered more questions.

"What I found was that there was absolutely no type of identification whatsoever on this urn. There's nothing on the outside, there's no certificate, there's no name, there's nothing on the bottom," Thayer told 7NEWS after inspecting the urn.

Thayer says it is an accepted industry practice to include an identifying coin inside the ashes, with a number or name of the deceased.

No such coin was inside Goddard's urn, but an inspection did uncover metal buttons and snaps which Goddard says could not have come from his mother.

She was cremated in a nightgown.

"The watch gave me the clue, the young lady going through sifting through those ashes and finding the metal buttons that sealed it to me. I feel beyond a shadow of a doubt that those are not my mom's ashes," Goddard told 7NEWS.

Aspen Mortuary declined 7NEWS's request for an interview to address the accusations.

Instead, the company's attorney sent a written statement that said, "Aspen Mortuary denies the allegations in Mr. Goddard's complaint and looks forward to the truth of the allegations coming out at trial."

Because there is no regulation for the funeral industry in Colorado, Goddard's only recourse was to file a lawsuit, hoping to get to the bottom of what happened.

Some legislators are taking are harder look at regulating the funeral industry in the upcoming session.