Kerrigan, 82, of Wildomar, California, said he called the coroner's office and was told the body was that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan, 57, who is mentally ill and had been living on the street.
As reported by the Orange County Register, on May 6 a man's body was discovered behind the Verizon store in Fountain Valley. The family of 57-year-old Frank M. Kerrigan, a homeless man who suffered from mental illness, was notified and told the coroner was in possession of his remains. They then apparently used an old photo from Frank's driver's license, compared it to the body, and made visual identification, he said.
As noted by Buzzfeed, a spokesman for the Orange County coroner's office said Saturday that the department regrets the emotional stress placed on the Kerrigan family by the "unfortunate incident." Lt.
The Orange County Coroner's Office referred DailyMail.com to the Sheriff's Office for comment. "Someone else had a handsome send off".
Later, at Chapman Funeral Home, the elder Kerrigan briefly had the casket opened so that he could take a last look at his son.
There was no word from officials of whose body was wrongly buried at the funeral, and the sheriff's department did not release details of the misidentification.
An attorney for Kerrigan, Doug Easton, contends that the Coroner's Office violated Frank's civil rights when it did not make adequate efforts to identify his body.
Pictured, Frank J Kerrigan daughter, Carole Meikle who'd also received a phonecall that her brother, Frank M Kerrigan was dead.
"When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them", he told the Orange County Register. 'I didn't know what my dead son was going to look like'. "There was blood and dirty blankets", she said.
A father found out his son was still alive after a body misidentified by officials was buried.
Authorities are still investigating who is buried in the plot.
When the fingerprints of the dead man were put into the computer, they did not match those of Frank M. Kerrigan.
But instead of Frank, a stranger was interred 150 feet away from where Kerrigan's late wife, Catherine Kerrigan, is buried.
Mr Easton said the coroner's office provided the Kerrigan family with a name of that person, but the identification has not been independently confirmed.
They held a $20,000 funeral May 12, at Holy Family Catholic Cathedral in Orange.
She also said that she was thrilled and happy that his brother was alive but added that she could not forget the trauma.
Meikle said her brother chose to return to living on the street and doesn't understand how hard the mistake was on his family. She added that as her brother had chosen to remain homeless, they had lived through their worst fear, adding that those feelings don't go away. Lane Lagaret went on to say the Orange County Sheriff's Department will conduct an internal investigation into the error and that identification procedures and policies will now be reviewed to ensure this doesn't happen again in the future.
"He was dead on the sidewalk".
26 June 2017
26 June 2017
26 June 2017
26 June 2017