Body buried in landfill
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Joe McCarthy
Jan 18, 2006, 7:12:10 PM1/18/06
to Tapho...@googlegroups.com
This happened here in my home state. I'm surprised no one has
picked up on it yet.
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Search for body ends
Police halt effort at request of family members
Holland Michigan Sentinel
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/011...060111001.shtml
By RICHARD HARROLD Staff writer
FEATURED ADVERTISER
MISSING Wavelet Thompson of the Ottawa County Medical Examiner's Office and Holland Police detectives Matt Messer and Rudy Mascorro answer questions during a news conference Tuesday on the search for a body that was mistakenly dumped at Autumn Hills landfill in Zeeland Township.
Sentinel/Dennis R.J. Geppert
LANDFILL: The Autumn Hills landfill in Zeeland Township was searched for a body that was mistakenly dumped at the site.
Holland police announced Tuesday they have suspended their search for a man's body that was mistakenly picked up from a Holland funeral home and taken to a Zeeland Township landfill.
However, state investigations will continue.
After meeting with Ottawa County health officials and other investigators, police will no longer continue their search for the man's remains at the Autumn Hills landfill.
"It has been determined that the body being in the landfill poses no public health threat," said Holland Police Capt. Matt Messer. "This is considered a civil matter."
Surviving family members have also asked police to stop searching for the man's body.
"We are deeply appreciative of all those who have helped ... search for our father and the support extended by the funeral home in this unfortunate situation," read a statement by family members, who wished to remain anonymous. "We are also very concerned about the health and safety of those people conducting what we believe could well be an unsuccessful search. Out of that concern and respect for our late father, we are asking that the search be discontinued immediately."
But that does not necessarily mean that attempts to find the man's body will stop altogether. State officials say the burden of locating the body now falls on Waste Management, operator of the Autumn Hills landfill, 700 56th Ave. in southeast Zeeland Township.
Police and other officials involved in the investigation have declined to identify the body, and members of the 66-year-old Holland area man's family have also refused to identify him.
After meeting with county health officials, investigators concluded that the missing body posed no public health risk and the search was called off.
"In the big scope of things, a body is probably less harmful than a lot of other things in a landfill," said Adam London, Ottawa County Environmental Health Services Director. "We were able to determine that the man hadn't died of any infectious diseases."
But state regulators say a search must continue."They have to find the body," said Ben Okwumabua, a supervisor in the solid waste bureau for the Southern Michigan District at the Department of Environmental Quality. "Bodies cannot go to a landfill under any circumstances. The burden is on the landfill operator to find (the body)."
A Waste Management spokesman said the company is cooperating.
"We (at this time) are simply responding to the direction of our various regulators," company spokesman Tom Horton said.
Officials said the man died Dec. 20 of heart disease, but because surviving family members took considerable time to agree that the man should be cremated, the body was stored in a locked garage at Notier-Ver Lee-Langeland Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th St., the Holland funeral home handling arrangements.
After contacting the driver from Priority Arrowaste of Zeeland, police determined the driver arrived on Thursday to pick up the funeral home's refuse and recyclables, which were stored in the same garage as the body.
The driver saw the container with the body, which officials say was on a gurney and clearly labled with the man's name, and contacted an Arrowaste dispatcher to find out what to do with the box.
"It was decided that he go ahead and take (the container)," said Holland Detective Rudy Mascorro.
The driver then apparently loaded the box onto the truck by himself.
Priority Arrowaste issued a statement Tuesday night in which it expressed regret over the incident and extended its sympathies to the relatives of the 66-year-old man. The statement also said the company had conducted an internal investigation, which concluded that its workers "did not vary from our normal course of business at the funeral home site."
When the funeral home discovered Friday morning that the man's body was mistakenly picked up with the funeral home's refuse, personnel there contacted landfill officials, who quickly isolated the area of the landfill where they believed the body may have been dumped, said Wavelet Thompson, Ottawa County medical examiner.
Investigators believe the Arrowaste driver dumped his load at about 6 a.m. Friday. The funeral home called the landfill between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Police searched the landfill Friday and Saturday.
A state police cadaver dog was used Saturday, but despite the dog's training, its ability to locate the body was hampered by all the waste material, Thompson said.
Investigators believe that as many as 70 other refuse loads were dumped in the same area of the landfill after the Arrowaste load containing the man's body was dumped, Thompson said.
Further complicating matters was the landfill's practice of periodically bulldozing cover over the refuse to level it out.
An investigation of Priority Arrowaste is likely, Okwumabua said.
"The issue is how is this possible?" Okwumabua said.
It is a question that perplexes John Sterenberg as well.
"I am utterly bewildered at how this could ever happen," said Sterenberg, one of the funeral home's owners.
The Holland funeral home is also being investigated by state officials regarding the incident.
That investigation could result in no action, or include sanctions from supervised operations to revocation of the funeral home's license.
"It depends on the severity and how the board feels about the gravity of the situation," said Andrew L. Metcalf Jr., director of the Michigan Bureau of Consumer Services.
Sterenberg said the funeral home is aware of the state's investigation.
"We support that investigation and will cooperate with any and all government investigations into the matter," Sterenberg said.
Contact Richard Harrold at richard...@hollandsentinel.com or (616) 546-4267.
Mogadeet
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
Search for body ends
Police halt effort at request of family members
Holland Michigan Sentinel
http://www.hollandsentinel.com/stories/011...060111001.shtml
By RICHARD HARROLD Staff writer
FEATURED ADVERTISER
MISSING Wavelet Thompson of the Ottawa County Medical Examiner's Office and Holland Police detectives Matt Messer and Rudy Mascorro answer questions during a news conference Tuesday on the search for a body that was mistakenly dumped at Autumn Hills landfill in Zeeland Township.
Sentinel/Dennis R.J. Geppert
LANDFILL: The Autumn Hills landfill in Zeeland Township was searched for a body that was mistakenly dumped at the site.
Holland police announced Tuesday they have suspended their search for a man's body that was mistakenly picked up from a Holland funeral home and taken to a Zeeland Township landfill.
However, state investigations will continue.
After meeting with Ottawa County health officials and other investigators, police will no longer continue their search for the man's remains at the Autumn Hills landfill.
"It has been determined that the body being in the landfill poses no public health threat," said Holland Police Capt. Matt Messer. "This is considered a civil matter."
Surviving family members have also asked police to stop searching for the man's body.
"We are deeply appreciative of all those who have helped ... search for our father and the support extended by the funeral home in this unfortunate situation," read a statement by family members, who wished to remain anonymous. "We are also very concerned about the health and safety of those people conducting what we believe could well be an unsuccessful search. Out of that concern and respect for our late father, we are asking that the search be discontinued immediately."
But that does not necessarily mean that attempts to find the man's body will stop altogether. State officials say the burden of locating the body now falls on Waste Management, operator of the Autumn Hills landfill, 700 56th Ave. in southeast Zeeland Township.
Police and other officials involved in the investigation have declined to identify the body, and members of the 66-year-old Holland area man's family have also refused to identify him.
After meeting with county health officials, investigators concluded that the missing body posed no public health risk and the search was called off.
"In the big scope of things, a body is probably less harmful than a lot of other things in a landfill," said Adam London, Ottawa County Environmental Health Services Director. "We were able to determine that the man hadn't died of any infectious diseases."
But state regulators say a search must continue."They have to find the body," said Ben Okwumabua, a supervisor in the solid waste bureau for the Southern Michigan District at the Department of Environmental Quality. "Bodies cannot go to a landfill under any circumstances. The burden is on the landfill operator to find (the body)."
A Waste Management spokesman said the company is cooperating.
"We (at this time) are simply responding to the direction of our various regulators," company spokesman Tom Horton said.
Officials said the man died Dec. 20 of heart disease, but because surviving family members took considerable time to agree that the man should be cremated, the body was stored in a locked garage at Notier-Ver Lee-Langeland Funeral Home, 315 E. 16th St., the Holland funeral home handling arrangements.
After contacting the driver from Priority Arrowaste of Zeeland, police determined the driver arrived on Thursday to pick up the funeral home's refuse and recyclables, which were stored in the same garage as the body.
The driver saw the container with the body, which officials say was on a gurney and clearly labled with the man's name, and contacted an Arrowaste dispatcher to find out what to do with the box.
"It was decided that he go ahead and take (the container)," said Holland Detective Rudy Mascorro.
The driver then apparently loaded the box onto the truck by himself.
Priority Arrowaste issued a statement Tuesday night in which it expressed regret over the incident and extended its sympathies to the relatives of the 66-year-old man. The statement also said the company had conducted an internal investigation, which concluded that its workers "did not vary from our normal course of business at the funeral home site."
When the funeral home discovered Friday morning that the man's body was mistakenly picked up with the funeral home's refuse, personnel there contacted landfill officials, who quickly isolated the area of the landfill where they believed the body may have been dumped, said Wavelet Thompson, Ottawa County medical examiner.
Investigators believe the Arrowaste driver dumped his load at about 6 a.m. Friday. The funeral home called the landfill between 8 and 8:30 a.m. Police searched the landfill Friday and Saturday.
A state police cadaver dog was used Saturday, but despite the dog's training, its ability to locate the body was hampered by all the waste material, Thompson said.
Investigators believe that as many as 70 other refuse loads were dumped in the same area of the landfill after the Arrowaste load containing the man's body was dumped, Thompson said.
Further complicating matters was the landfill's practice of periodically bulldozing cover over the refuse to level it out.
An investigation of Priority Arrowaste is likely, Okwumabua said.
"The issue is how is this possible?" Okwumabua said.
It is a question that perplexes John Sterenberg as well.
"I am utterly bewildered at how this could ever happen," said Sterenberg, one of the funeral home's owners.
The Holland funeral home is also being investigated by state officials regarding the incident.
That investigation could result in no action, or include sanctions from supervised operations to revocation of the funeral home's license.
"It depends on the severity and how the board feels about the gravity of the situation," said Andrew L. Metcalf Jr., director of the Michigan Bureau of Consumer Services.
Sterenberg said the funeral home is aware of the state's investigation.
"We support that investigation and will cooperate with any and all government investigations into the matter," Sterenberg said.
Contact Richard Harrold at richard...@hollandsentinel.com or (616) 546-4267.
Mogadeet
dead girl
Jan 25, 2006, 11:53:21 PM1/25/06
to Tapho...@googlegroups.com
ok, HOW do you lose a body???? I cant keep up with my keys, but a BODY would be a bit difficult to misplace, ughhhh!! I posted this on Taph. Thanks Mogadeet, U ROCK!
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