Family thought they were given loved one’s ashes — then learn he’s alive in Oregon
A family believed their loved one was dead when they received his death certificate and a urn full of ashes, Oregon officials and news outlets reported.
Then, months later, his cousin received a phone call saying he was still alive, KGW reported.
“I just lost it. ... It is so hard to believe how something like this could even happen. It just makes no sense to me,” Tyler Chase’s cousin Latasha Rosales told KGW.
Chase, 22, of Portland, was declared dead from a drug overdose Sept. 11 by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office, the department confirmed with McClatchy News.
However, Chase is still alive.
He was in a recovery program for drug abuse and was trying to get his food benefits when he learned from the Oregon Department of Human Services that he had been legally declared dead, Chase told KPTV.
Chase’s wallet, including his temporary driver’s license, had been found on a man who actually died, the agency said in a statement.
An investigator contacted Chase’s family, who declined looking at the body before it was cremated, officials said.
In the end, the body had been wrongly identified.
Misidentifying bodies is ‘extremely rare’
The office learned they made a mistake with the identification on Dec. 18 and contacted his family the following day, officials told McClatchy News.
“Misidentification is extremely rare but has been reported in a small number of cases nationwide,” the office said in a statement.
The county medical examiner now has plans to make sure these errors don’t happen again by first launching “a comprehensive review to identify any gaps in current practices.”
Additionally, anyone found with a temporary state-issued ID will have their fingerprints submitted before being identified, officials said.
The true identity of the dead man has been confirmed by the office, and his family was “immediately contacted,” officials told McClatchy News.
This story was originally published January 10, 2024 at 12:12 PM with the headline "Family thought they were given loved one’s ashes — then learn he’s alive in Oregon."
