A mother said Saturday she got an anonymous call that her son was dead and that the coroner planned to release his body to someone she does not know.
The family of Albert Capps (pictured), 41, spent hours on the phone after the Friday call trying to confirm the information and hours wondering why his next of kin was not notified, 6News' Cheryl Jackson reported.
Capps' family said he was a member of white supremacist groups the Ku Klux Klan and Aryan Nation.
Late Saturday, Capps' mother, Laura Pickering, and sister, Grace Moran, were told by Capps' friends that his body was released to a funeral home and that Capps' plan was to have his body cremated, with the remains given to the Klan, something the family intends to fight.
Laura Pickering said the woman who called to tell her of Capps' death said that she was there when he died. Capps had recently called his mother.
"He said, 'I've got three to six months to live and I'll see you in heaven,'" Pickering said. "That's the last I heard from him."
The Marion County Coroner's Office confirmed that Capps died in a home on Indianapolis' southwest side on Dec. 29. His sister, Grace Moran, called the office to get information.
"She checked and said, 'Yes, we have him and he has been here a week.' I said, 'How do I claim his body?' and she said, 'Somebody else has already claimed him,'" Moran said. "She said a cousin. I said, 'He don't have no cousins. We are his immediate family.'"
Moran said she tried to convince the woman on the phone that she was part of Capps' immediate family.
"I just don't know what do now. My fear is that I am going to get down to that morgue ... and he is going to be gone and I am not going to know who's got him," Moran said.
Saturday, January 05, 2008
More Strange Happenings At Marion Co. Coroner's Office
Imagine receiving an anonymous phone call telling you that your son died a week ago. Then imagine contacting the coroner's office to confirm whether your son had in fact died and being told, yes, he had been at the coroner's office for a week. When you ask to claim your son, the coroner's office tells that you can't claim his body because it has been claimed by someone else. And you later learn your son's body has been taken to a local funeral home where his body will be cremated and his ashes turned over to the Ku Klux Klan. Believe it or not, it happened this past week right here in Marion County. WRTV's Cheryl Jackson reports:
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14 comments:
Mistakes happen. Nobody is perfect.
HA Mistakes. The Marion CO. Coroner's Office is laughable. Once is a mistake. How many mistakes do these folks get to make. And where the hell is Carl brizzi these days.
Ossie and Izzy's
If you can get a camera crew to the coroner's office, Brizzi
will then show up there. But first
ya gotta get the camera crew there.
And get a flask with some Jack
for him.
Just imagine if this happened to your family. If they hadn't gotten an anonymous phone call, they would've never known what happened to their family member. Who authorized the release of the body to someone other than the immediate next-of-kin. Probably Ballew, completely incompetent. This is a CRIME per state statute as the law is very clear on nxt-of-kin in case of death. MCCO wouldn't have told anyone about this and it is business as usual there.
It appears that the deceased left a signed written notarized statement indicating what he wished to happen after his death.
Short basic last will and testament I suppose.
The deceased's KKK and Aryan friends likely presented this signed statement to the Coroner's office and body was released.
If this be the case then it's not a news story. If not then it is.
It is a news story. State statute requires the decedent to be released to his legal next-of-kin, in this case his mother. Its sloppy, cold-hearted work by both the deputy that investigated at the scene and by Ballew. To NOT notify his family is WRONG. He'd been arrested before, it would be VERY EASY to find and notify family of his death. Then, the family could get with his Klan "family" to decide how to proceed with the funeral/cremation. Its NOT MCCO's decision, yet this is common practice now with Ackles and Ballew in charge.
So if a person signs a document saying he wants his dead body to be released to someone other than next of kin, the coroner's office is bound to release the body to the next of kin?
If that's the case, I don't agree. And no, I'm not a KKK supporter. I just believe the wishes of the dead person matters most here.
The family still should have been notified by MCCO of his death, regardless of what is to happen to his remains. Its just shows how uncaring some of the staff in charge at MCCO is when it comes to families. Dig deeper, there are lots of similar stories. Here's a little bait...Carl Southern. Happy fishing.
For the coroner's apologist who's posting, a few facts and questions:
The Brizzi slings are unneeded. I didn't vote for him, and he's a canera hog--no questions about that. But this is about the coroner.
If you're the coroner, and a body arrives at your office, you're supposed to determine cause of death, right? If a doctor didn't sign a death certificate, your office must determine the cause, right? For a younger man to die, without an investigation of some kind, and no known ailments, is unusual enough to tease someone's curiousity I'd think.
Stay with me here.
Using that same logic, and I realize in advance that logic and Ackles are oxymoronic in the same sentence, if a younger-than-usual man shows up dead, and accompanying him is a signed and notarized statement which determines the method of corpse disposal, which is the exact opposite of most such disposal common terms, don't you ask some questions? Documents are forged and notarized every day. This kind of statement is unusual, at best. Wouldn't you investigate a little, to determine if next-of-kin want to validate or contest this "last testament" ? Are you going to let a simple notarized piece of paper overrule your common sense?
It would've taken only a small amount of time to ask these rudimentary questions and lift a finger to investigate. And that small effort would easily have produced the horrified parents. Who could've hired counsel if they felt their son either didn't sign the paper, or it was signed under the influence of painkillers, or anything else. They'd have had some options.
To fail to do minimal probing, whether it's a crime or not, violates the sensibilities of civilized society. Dead people's kext of kin deserve some respect. If the deceased truly wanted to "diss" his immediate family, that could've been determined, and the "certificate"'s vailidty could've bene checked with minimal effort.
This coroner and all his dope deputies must go now. I have a sinking feeling there are many, many more stories like this covered up.
We are a national laughing stock. And countless families have had their hearts broken with these stupid inconsistencies and lack of sensible action.
The coroner is a freaking chiropractor, for cryin' out loud. There is a reason that "medical specialty" is not allowed priveledges in most hospitals. Didn't he ditch the qualified forensic experts, in favor of his own imported medical forensic experts, last year? Doesn't anyone at that office possess a modicum of common sense?
If the Democrats don't dump this joker in slating next month, there is no justice.
I have been arguing for a Medical Examiners system for years but few legislators have the courage to enact one.
Al Capps was a simple man. All he wanted was to be a new man, and for those that never gave him the chance, God Shall forgive him in the after life. Al asked me a week before he died to call him. I never did and now I regret it. Al we love you and will miss you.
James Henry
yes mistakes was made the first one was thinking his family wouldnt find out the second one was that he has 2 kids that love him i dont know what happen to al but he died but he was loved by his kids and mom and the rest of the family wheather he was right or wrong with god only god knows everybody thinks they know him but they only know what he wanted them to know the conner office was wrong and the people who claim him was wrong and the police was wrong if they would have just look up his record they would have knew who he was and he had kids mom sisters and a brother still alive mcco needs to take responibility for not doing their job to make sure the next of kin which is his mom or his kids but iam so glad that at least the kids got to say good bye to their dad before he was cremated i would like to thank his sister for finding me so the kids could say good-bye
IF YOUR GOING TO TALK ABOUT OUR FAMILY MEMBER AT LEAST LEAVE YOUR NAME
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