Mistaken Identity-- Your Funeral or Mine?

What in HELL was the coroner thinking that he mistakeningly identified the two girls wrong??

[...]Grant County Coroner Ron Mowery, whose office handled the death investigations, apologized during a news conference for the mix-up.

Mowery described an accident scene where purses and wallets were strewn and that acquaintances of the students had identified the survivor taken to a Ft. Wayne hospital as VanRyn. He said no scientific testing was conducted to verify the identifications. One of the other students killed was a Chicago-area woman, Laurel Erb, 20, of St. Charles.

Luttrell said Cerak was airlifted from the crash scene with VanRyn's identification, which contained a photograph.

?'?'I can't stress enough that we did everything we knew to do under those circumstances, and trusted the same processes and the same policies that we always do,'' Mowery told reporters Wednesday in Marion.

?'?'And this tragedy unfolded like we could never have imagined,'' he added.[...]

DAWNING REALITY
Sister's blog unveils error

Associated Press

Through a blog, Lisa VanRyn kept family and friends updated about the recovery of the woman she thought was her sister Laura. And on Wednesday it was through the blog that the family acknowledged that Laura was dead and the person they thought was Laura was Whitney Cerak, who had been presumed dead in the April 26 accident. Here are excerpts from the blog, lauravanryn.blogspot.com:


APRIL 28:

?'?'Laura was thrown about 50 feet from the van and seemed to take the brunt of the force on her left side. Laura is currently in a comatose state, and has been unconscious since the accident. This morning, she has made some small movements. There was a small move of her leg, squinting of the eyes, and some small finger movements. She has a respirator doing most of the breathing for her right now."


MAY 12:

?'?'The speech therapist spent some time with Laura this morning and told us she was seeing some positive signs. Laura squeezed her hand a couple of times on command and also seems to be following sounds with her eyes. She is also doing some tracking of movement as well."


MAY 26:

?'?'Yesterday we were looking at some birds and Dad said, ?'Laura, finish my sentence. The bird's beak is ...' And Laura said, ?'pink,' which was pretty accurate. And if you ask her to look to her right or left she does that most of the time. As far as recognizing us ... we think that sometimes she does, and sometimes she doesn't."


MAY 29:

?'?'While certain things seem to be coming back to her, she still has times where she'll say things that don't make much sense.''


MAY 30:

?'?'Our hearts are aching as we have learned that the young woman we have been taking care of over the past five weeks has not been our dear Laura, but instead a fellow Taylor student of hers, Whitney Cerak."

[...]
The Detroit News reported that Jerry Nelson, the Taylor University food services director who followed several minutes behind the van, said he was approached by a state trooper at the scene. He was asked to remain in his car and list the nine passengers in the van.

An officer later brought driver's licenses and matched the names with Nelson's list of the occupants.

Later, three school administrators, including Wynn Lembright, vice president for student affairs, arrived at Marion General Hospital and were given five names of the deceased to match with the five bodies.

Lembright said the list included Cerak's name but not VanRyn's, according to News.

Identifying Cerak was ?'?'a fairly easy thing,'' Lembright said. Physical features, including hair color, were used to match the names with the dead, Lembright said. Family members had declined to view the body.

The woman identified as VanRyn by emergency workers had been airlifted from the scene to a Ft. Wayne hospital, so school officials never saw her.
[...]

Woman's body exhumed for reburial in crash mix-up case

Associated Press

GAYLORD, Mich.?-The body of a young woman who was buried under a grave marker with someone else's name on it was exhumed Tuesday for another burial after a heartbreaking case of mistaken identity.

A Gaylord public works crew removed the casket holding the remains of Laura VanRyn from the Fairview Cemetery plot where the parents of Whitney Cerak had buried her, thinking she was their daughter. Cerak actually had survived an April 26 van crash in Indiana that killed VanRyn and four others from Taylor University.

VanRyn, 22, will be given a private graveside service by her parents within a few days and will be reburied near relatives in Grand Rapids Township, about 180 miles southwest, according to funeral home owner Bob Zaagman.

VanRyn and Cerak, now 19, were in a van that collided with a tractor-trailer. The coroner's office mistakenly told the families of the two blond college students that Cerak was dead and VanRyn was in a coma. The mixup was discovered last week.

Cerak, who suffered a brain injury and broken bones, cuts and scrapes that left her face swollen, is recovering at a rehabilitation center.

Newell Cerak, her father and pastor of young adults at Gaylord Evangelical Free Church, said the family was ?'?'overjoyed'' at her progress.

?'?'She has been increasing in endurance each moment, it seems?-sitting up to eat her meals, feeding herself and cleaning the plate,'' Cerak wrote Monday on a familymaintained Web log. ?'?'Praise God!"