Family Questions How DC Woman's Body Was Handled After Her Death

A D.C. family says they have questions about how a woman's body was handled after her death, and that they cannot give her a proper viewing or funeral.

Monique Adams, 47, was reported missing on Sept. 8 and found dead the following day on the second floor of an abandoned D.C. government building on Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, authorities said. Adams had been living in transitional housing in Southeast after going through a rehab program for drug addiction, her family said.

Police officers who found Adams' body reported there was no evidence of trauma, and her remains were taken to the medical examiner's office downtown.

Several days later, Adams' cousin Sabrina Richardson says she was troubled by what she saw when she viewed the body at the funeral home. Richardson said it was overwhelmed by decomposition.

The toe tag on the body was dated Sept. 14, five days after the body was discovered.

A source in the medical examiner's office said the date indicates when the funeral home picked up the body, and said there was no irregularity in how Adams' case was handled.

Richardson, however, said their family wants answers about what happened to Adams and they were unable to give her a proper goodbye.

"There'll be no viewing. We'll never see her again," Richardson said. "It leaves a hole, a hole in my heart."

While cousins by blood, Richardson said she and Adams were more like sisters.

"No family should go through what we are going through now," she said.

Richardson said the medical examiner promised to call her about her concerns, but she still hasn't heard from them.

The medical examiner has not yet determined the cause or manner of Adams' death.