An identification error with major consequences.
Is there an area where error is avoidable? Even that of identifying bodies is no exception to the rule. This family from San Francisco (California, United States) was stunned when they learned that the ashes they carefully kept in a funeral urn were not those of the man they thought they were.
Indeed, three years ago, in May 2021, the death of a man was reported in front of a hotel in the city. After identification, the pathologist was clear: it was indeed James Robinson, who died of an overdose. Immediately, his family was informed of his death and wished to cremate him. So a funeral urn containing his ashes was entrusted to him.
Addiction
Except that at the beginning of 2024, a friend is convinced of having encountered the deceased in the street. Very quickly, he informed James' daughter, who set out in search of her father's ghost. A few months later, the reunion took place. A mystery quickly solved since it turned out that an error was made during the identification. A DNA test confirmed that James was indeed James.
Unfortunately plagued by serious addiction problems, he refused to seek treatment and disappeared from the radar again, according to information from Newsweek. His daughter goes to pick him up to spend some time with him on the weekend.
Conversely, the family of the “real” deceased only learned at the beginning of November of the death of Jacob Bruce Chrisinger after having searched for him for three long years.
France
World
