In late September, the lead spokesman for Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services took a “special assignment” at the coroner’s office.
If Armand Montiel thought the morgue would be a more low key workplace, he was in for a rude awakening.
On October 28, Los Angeles Times Reporter Richard Winton published a bizarre story wherein the coroner’s office accidentally cremated the wrong man.
The man who was mistakenly cremated shared the same name as another. The coroner’s attendant forgot to check the number associated with each body.
“When retrieving the remains the coroner’s attendant matched the name but did not match the coroner case number. It was an oversight by human error,” Montiel told the Times.
Since the story was first published it has been re-reported in dozens of other news outlets. The Washington Post even picked the story up.