A family is still looking for answers after they arrived at their grandmother's viewing last Friday to find someone else in her casket.
"I just want her to have a proper funeral and burial, if it's not too late. We just want to find our grandmother," Dana Murphy Mayberry said of her late grandmother Virginia Gray.
News4's Pat Collins first reported this story Tuesday. On Wednesday, Horton's Funeral Home said the woman's body they have was identified to them by the Prince George's Hospital Center as Virginia Gray.
"The family says not. The hospital says it is," said R. Bowman Horton, owner of Horton's. "The hospital tagged it Virginia Gray, so they're holding to their guns that we have the right person."
Gray, who was 83, went to Prince George's Hospital Center on Feb. 19 after becoming unconscious, and later died at the hospital.
Horton's said it picked up Gray's body and prepared her for the viewing and burial, but the family has said they are positive the woman they saw in the casket was not their grandmother.
According to the family, the body in the casket had two different identification markers, a bracelet and a toe tag. The bracelet had the name Athens Doe, birthdate "01/01/1950" and age 66. The toe tag had the name Virginia E. Gray, birthdate "02/10/1933" and age 83. But both tags have the same ID number.
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The family also says Gray had surgical scars and the woman's body that was in the casket at Horton's did not have those scars.
Horton's said it will do DNA testing to verify the identity of the body, Collins reports.
Dimensions Healthcare Systems released the following statement to News4 on Thursday:
"On Monday, February 22, a representative from Horton’s Funeral Home arrived at the hospital to pick up the body. The funeral home presented a signed release form giving them permission by the family to retrieve the body and the death certificate. Prince George’s Hospital Center has a thorough verification process prior to releasing any bodies from the morgue to include verification of the patient’s name and medical record number on the body bag, ID bracelet, morgue log and pick up slip to name just a few of the check points. Throughout the verification process, all of the information matched and we are confident that we released the right individual to the funeral home. The situation that the Gray Family is experiencing is extremely unfortunate and we, along with the family, hope that it is resolved soon."
Prince George's Hospital Center is a member of DHS.
