A 26-year-old man was mistakenly cremated, after a Los Angeles County coroner’s technician confused his remains with those of another man with the same name, a spokesman for the coroner’s office said. The Los Angeles Times reported that office spokesman Armand Montiel explained on Friday that two men named Jorge Hernandez were at the morgue. That person sent the wrong remains for cremation. They denied this family the chance to remember their son.”The coroner’s office has been struggling to reduce a backlog in cases due to staffing shortages. The LA Times reported that as of 21 September, toxicology and other tests had not been completed on more than 1,500 bodies, down from 2,100 in June.

Source: The Guardian October 29, 2016 14:07 UTC