On Aug, 3. Carrie Minney buried her daughter, Sharolyn Jackson. Or so she thought.
Roughly a week earlier, a woman thought to be Jackson was found dead in West Philadephia, the victim of a heat stroke. The family had the funeral and paid their final respects, but on Aug. 17, Minney was informed that her daughter was alive and well at a city hospital. It turns out that the 50-year-old Jackson hadn't died, she had just been missing.
According to Minney, her daughter had issues with drugs. When they last spoke in early July, Jackson told her that she was entering a program for treatment. On Jul. 20, the body of a woman matching her description was found at 59th and Spruce streets. Jackson's son, Travis, and an employee at Philly Horizon House identified the body the body via photograph. A death certificate was signed and the body was released.
How does a mistake of this magnitude happen? "If someone comes in and they're a family member and say, 'That's my mom,' that's generally good enough," Health Department spokesman James Garrow told the Philadelphia Daily News.
While Minney is glad that her daughter is alive, she has many questions—mainly, whose body did the family bury? She wants answers. "It's really bothering me that some mother is out there probably looking for her daughter and don't know where she's at."
City officials say they will unearth the body in order to indentify it.
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[via Philly.com]
