The family of a missing Chicago woman whose body took over a year for a morgue to admit identification is suing behind claims they lost her among a pile of bodies stuffed over capacity.
The body of Carmelita Johnson, 47, was recovered from a South Shore beach over 14 months ago but her family claim they were never notified by the Cook County medical examiner's office but instead tipped off by a police detective.
'It's devastating,' Ms Johnson's daughter Leslie Jackson told NBC Chicago this month.'A lot of things could have been prevented. We don't know the cause of death, but if the [Medical Examiner's] office had done their jobs, we could've had some type of closure,' she said.
The suit follows leaks by morgue staff of photos showing hundreds of bodies stacked, some rotting for over a year in the facility, while a cooler stored nearly 500 others despite a capacity of 300, according to an anonymous source speaking to the Chicago Tribune.
The county's chief Medical Examiner Dr Nancy Jones claims the figures to be too high while admitting struggle within their office to house the bodies.
'Our morgue population fluctuates every single day, and this particular incident was an anomaly that occurred because last summer the state cut public funding for indigent burials,' she told the Chicago Tribune last month.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office has admitted their facility was over capacity prior to this year but they are working diligently to find proper locations for their hundreds of bodies
With this leaked photo by a morgue employee come reports of 400-500 bodies stacked inhumanly in the facility meant for a maximum of 300. That cut ruled that families who could not afford funeral services for their deceased would have those bodies automatically donated to science.
But until they could be buried or used at the state's intention, they reportedly stacked up, with Ms Johnson's body included, whose family says they never learned the cause of her death.
'I've been as disturbed and ... discouraged and disappointed by information that has come to my attention about the medical examiner’s office,' Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said at a news conference in January according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
'I expect people to lose their jobs,' she said.
Painful wait: The family of the missing woman say they were only tipped off of her body's location in the morgue by a police detective, having not known what happened to her for over a year
Among the office's physical stack of controversies to come to light was a 2011 report of mass burials taking place in a Cook county cemetery, including one case of 26 babies found in a single wooden box together with other unidentified limbs and bones.
The practice of mass burial for the unidentified is a standard one for Cook County however.
Sheriff Tom Dart said he's working to change that saying the practice impedes criminal investigations as the bodies simply disappear from record.
'There is no grid system. You couldn't find people if you wanted to find them,' Mr Dart said at a news conference early last year according to CBS.
'From a law enforcement we were disturbed,' Mr Dart said, 'from a human standpoint we were absolutely appalled.'
Prior to Ms Johnson's disappearance in January of 2010 she told family she was concerned for her safety after ending a rocky relationship.
'My mother was in a very abusive relationship,' her daughter told UPI. 'He would make threats that he was going to kill her.'
While working on the missing persons case for Ms Jackson's mother, Chicago Police Detective Pamela Childs took DNA samples from her family, including her dental records according to the family.
Mass burial: A photo of a wooden coffin holding the bodies of 26 babies was reported last February of 2011 leading to police arguments of mass burials of those without identification impeding criminal investigations
With cuts in state funds for indigent burials, the practice of mass graves is a standard practice but one that can easily mask a loved one's body, like Ms Johnson's, who was missing to the family for over a year
Police told the Chicago Tribune that in contrast they were told that dental records didn't exist for Ms Johnson, hindering the investigation and her body's identification.
Ultimately the detective's work was what informed the family of her body's recovery and not the medical examiners office.
'I’m very upset and angry that it took this long to identify my mother’s body,' Ms Jackson told the Tribune. 'Whether it was good or bad, I just wanted to know ... we have some closure, but we have unanswered questions,' she said.
The details of the family's suit have not been released while only saying they hope justice will be be served and the chief medical examiner, Dr Jones, will step down from her position.
5th February 2012
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2096759/Chicago-morgue-lost-mothers-body-14-months-stuffed-capacity.html#ixzz1lYNQQEZs
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