When a fatal car crash stole their son’s life last Saturday, a distraught Illinois family needed to bury him. And it was the hardest thing they needed to do in their life. He was so young. He had such a bright future. How could they say goodbye?
But this was only the beginning of their suffering…
Jared McPherson and his co-worker Brian Lee Hubbs, were driving back to Bethalto from Waterloo when their truck suddenly veered off the road, hit a tree, and almost instantly erupted into flames. It was a nightmare.
But then the family got an unprofessional call from the coroner that set off a sequence of nightmarishly gruesome events that should be punished…
When the coroner called the family to tell the parents that their son had been KILLED in a car accident, he started off the call by telling the dad that everything was ‘fine’ – very professional…
“I got a phone call,” Jared’s dad Mike McPherson said. “I said, ‘Who is this?’ and he said, ‘Well, first of all, everything’s fine.’”
Fine?! Their son just died. Everything is not fine. What kind of coroner says that…?
The coroner told the family that the car fire had been so intensely hot that their son’s body had been completely obliterated. There was nothing left to be buried. He figured that they were going to like that, since burial are such a hassle…
Although there was nothing to bury, of course the family wanted to celebrate their son’s life. A grave was dug for the young man in the ground the Friday after the crash. The following day, Karissa, Jared’s sister, and his fiancée, Candice, went to the sight of the crash to pay their final respects. Since it was where he last took in breath…
“Me and his fiancée Candice, we just wanted to be where he was … the last time he was alive,” Karissa said.
But then the women made a horrifying discovery. They found parts of Jared left behind by the inept coroner’s department…
“I looked down and Candice was holding part of a skull and I picked up a hand,” said Karissa, who will never forget that horrible moment.
When the family contacted the St. Clair County Coroner’s Officer, they were told the body parts were “accidentally” left there. Then they stopped answering the family’s calls because they knew they had messed up and just wanted to move on…
Now the family has hired an attorney. They are considering filing a lawsuit against the office because their neglect will haunt their dreams forever…
“When they take down that tape, it’s their job to take care of the site and they did not do their job,” said Mike.
Karissa added, “I just hope no one else has to ever feel what we felt or see what we saw.”
Do you think they should sue the coroner for negligence? How should public servants like this be punished when they fail to do their job?
SHARE your opinions on this legal matter in the comments today!
