Jeffrey Merriweather Jr.Photo: FACEBOOK
The family of a Georgia man who died in 2019 is seeking restitution after the man’s remains were inexplicably lost in the mail and never recovered.
Jeffrey Merriweather, of Fulton County, Georgia, said his 32-year-old son’s body was discovered partially decomposed weeks after a suspected shooting in 2019, although he would never learn his son’s cause of death.
Instead, part of Jeffrey Merriweather Jr.’s remains were somehow lost while being shipped from the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office to a specialized facility to determine a cause of death. Three years later, his family is looking to take legal action in hopes of holding someone accountable for the disappearance of their loved one’s body.
“I just want someone to be held liable for this,” Jeffrey Merriweather Sr. tells PEOPLE. “I have his two kids too, and there’s no closure for us. I just don’t understand how certain laws protect people from things like this.”
A FedEx spokesperson tells PEOPLE, “Our thoughts and concerns remain with the family of Mr. Merriweather, however, we request that further questions be directed to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office.”
The Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office didn’t immediately responded to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Merriweather Sr. said his family has not received follow-up messages or cooperation from neither FedEx nor the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office, which reportedly toldFox 5 Atlantait was reaching out to its investigative team to look into the snafu.
But for Merriweather Jr.’s family, those efforts are too little, too late. Merriweather Sr. said he’d like to see legislation enacted to ensure no one else has to suffer like his family.
“This is a lot of negligence on the part of FedEx, who had the remains at their location, and then all of a sudden, lose it?” Merriweather Sr. said. “How do you do that with remains? This is like the worst nightmare a person can go through.”
source: people.com
