The astonishing litany of police blunders that left one family grieving a car crash victim who was still alive... and a second family clinging to hope when their beloved son was already dead | Retrui News | Retrui
The astonishing litany of police blunders that left one family grieving a car crash victim who was still alive... and a second family clinging to hope when their beloved son was already dead
SOURCE:Daily Mail
His parents, reeling from the loss of their 17-year-old son in a car crash two weeks before Christmas, had been to the funeral director with the clothes they'd wanted him dressed in for his final journey.
Trevor 'TJ' Wynn should have been laid to rest on Friday. His funeral at the church of St Anne's in Worksop had been booked for weeks; the vicar consulted.
His parents, reeling from the loss of their 17-year-old son in a car crash two weeks before Christmas, had been to the funeral director with the clothes they'd wanted him dressed in for his final journey.
They had even taken in mementoes, as well as the Christmas gifts TJ hadn't lived to open, requesting that they go in his coffin.
It's difficult enough to imagine their pain, then, but how to fathom what they must be feeling now, when their world has been upended all over again?
Because this week, it emerged TJ had not died in the car crash that claimed the lives of two of his friends.
In fact, he was very much alive, although badly injured in hospital and being watched over by another family who'd been told he was their critically injured son.
What no one realised, for an astonishing 22 days, is that a catastrophic error had been made, and that police had mixed up the identities of the two teenage boys who shared a striking similarity in looks and build.
It was actually 18-year-old Joshua Johnson, a friend of TJ's and the second male passenger in the car, who had died on impact at the scene. And it was his parents who were mistakenly keeping vigil at TJ's bedside.
Josh Johnson (pictured) was tragically killed in a car crash - but his parents believed he was still alive for three weeks
It sounds like the plot of a particularly outlandish soap opera – such identity 'switches' do not happen in the real world, surely?
Yet somehow, it did, plunging two families into hell and leaving the communities supporting them numb with shock. The sense of disbelief in Worksop, where the Wynn family live, is palpable, as we discovered this week.
One of the first people to pose the question the entire country is now asking – how can such a thing happen? – was Jonathan Stoner, the owner of a boxing gym in the town, who set up an online fundraiser to help the Wynn family meet funeral costs.
'In Loving Memory of Trevor 'TJ' Wynn' read the title on the memorial page.
Jonathan, 31, was kept abreast of the funeral plans. So when he received a call from TJ's mum Charlotte on Monday, he thought she was ringing to discuss logistics. She was not.
'She told me 'Sit down! I have something to tell you. He's still alive. He's still alive!' ' Jonathan told the Daily Mail this week.
'I said 'What?' I just couldn't believe it. It was such a big shock. Then she explained the patient mix-up – that it wasn't TJ who was dead, but another boy. How do you process that? How can you?'
The accident on a rural road near Rotherham that claimed two young lives in the early hours of December 13 was always going to lead to heartbreak in multiple households.
Trevor Wynn (pictured) survived the car crash, yet his parents were mistakenly told that their son had died and were due to bury the teenager this Friday
Summer Scott, 17, died instantly when the Toyota Corolla she was driving left the road and hit a tree.
But it was the identity of her two male passengers that's caused such agony.
In the chaotic scenes that followed, it quickly became clear neither boy had any identification about their person, although both their phones were found at the scene with some ID attached.
This led police to erroneously establish that it was TJ who'd died, after his mother provided South Yorkshire police with his college ID card and gave a description of his build and footwear.
They thought, therefore, that it was Joshua Johnson who was critically ill and had suffered facial injuries. Rushed to Rotherham hospital, he was placed in a medically-induced coma.
The Johnsons immediately set up vigil there, where 'their' boy was in a critical care unit.
It's not known how close they were allowed to his bedside, but we do know they visited every day and even set up an informal rota with friends and family to make sure Josh – their 'gentle giant' –was never left alone.
The other two families started the grim task of planning funerals.
Summer Louise Scott (pictured) was driving the car in the accident and was killed instantly on impact
Summer's took place earlier this week; her father Lee leaving a heartbreaking tribute at the accident site which read: 'I'm not mad at you. Summer... One day we'll meet again.'
All over the holidays, TJ's grieving friends left tributes for the boy they thought had died.
A farmer who lives nearby told the Daily Mail this week that carloads of teenagers had been 'laying flowers, hugging each other, crying.'
A banner attached to a nearby youth centre still reads 'Forever in our Hearts, Trevor 'TJ' Wynn'. The flowers are still in bloom.
TJ's funeral had been due to take place on Friday at St Anne's church in Worksop. Indeed, had it not been for the bank holiday delays, which always mean extended waits for funerals over the festive period, his loved-ones might have already laid this young man to rest. Or thought they had.
The mistake only emerged on Sunday when 'Joshua', being visited by a friend, regained consciousness and asked medical staff, 'Why are you calling me Josh?' The penny dropped and the friend immediately alerted Joshua's family.
Only now did the full horror emerge: the boy Joshua's parents thought had been spared was not their son but his friend, a lad they had never met.
Their child was in fact the one who had been declared dead at the scene.
His body had been erroneously labelled in a municipal morgue, 'his' inquest opened without their knowledge or participation and another family – who had apparently been told that viewing the body would be too distressing for them – was preparing to lay him to rest.
On Tuesday, South Yorkshire Police confirmed there had been a serious mix-up.
'Concerns' had been raised about the identities of those killed,' said a spokesperson. 'Information came to light' on Sunday which prompted 'further formal identification processes, including forensics, to be undertaken'.
We will return to this because it's a key point in this story – how utterly extraordinary that this was the first time forensic identification had been mooted – but Assistant Chief Constable Colin McFarlane acknowledged the families' trauma.
'This has obviously come as a huge shock to everyone and we recognise the additional trauma this may cause,' he said.
'We are supporting Trevor and all the families through this and have engaged specialist agencies to help provide that support.
'I have also offered to meet with both sets of parents as I am sure they will have many questions, most of which we are not able to answer yet but we are absolutely committed to understanding how this happened so it cannot happen again.'
South Yorkshire Police immediately referred themselves to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, and an independent investigation is now underway.
On Thursday, IOPC director Emily Barry expressed her 'sincere condolences' to all those involved, adding: 'It's hard to imagine what these families have been through in the past few weeks. It is clear something has gone very wrong with awful consequences for them.'
Neither family has yet spoken publicly but Joshua's family – suddenly having to sort out his funeral – issued a statement referencing how they spent 'hours in hospital with who we now know to be Trevor'.
'What we have been through and are continuing to go through is unimaginable. We never wanted him to be alone. Only those we shared this time with could understand how this went on for so long.
'Neither us nor Josh's brother can imagine life without him, and as we adjust to this new world and only just begin our journey with grief, we ask that our privacy is respected.'
What's immediately clear is that the poor families will face a long wait to have all their questions answered.
The formalities began on Thursday with a hastily arranged hearing at Doncaster Coroner's Court, during which it was confirmed that although an inquest had been opened for TJ on December 22, Senior Coroner Nicola Mundy said she was satisfied the inquest did, in fact, concern Joshua.
She warned the family that any potential criminal proceedings in this case would take priority over the coroner's investigation.
This was a reference to the fact that two other teenagers were arrested after the accident.
An 18-year-old on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and a 19-year-old on suspicion of perverting the course of justice remain on bail pending further inquiries, police said on Wednesday.
The information that has emerged already, however, is astonishing.
Confirming the correct identities of the victims, DCI Andrew Knowles (who had no involvement with this case until January 5, when the mistake first came to light) gave a lengthy statement, effectively confirming that NO forensic identification was even attempted at the accident site, or in the aftermath.
Instead, officers at the scene relied on matching personal possessions up to their presumed owners. It is worth quoting from his statement at length.
'A number of items of personal property were found at the scene, though were not physically about the person of either of the males,' he confirmed.
'One of these items was a phone in a case which also contained the driving licence of Joshua Johnson.
'A second phone nearby showed some medical ID information and was in the name of Trevor Wynn. A bank card in the same name was also attached.
'An officer describes using the information available to establish next of kin details for Trevor, and then speaking to his mother to explain what had occurred.
'Trevor's mother provided the officer with a college ID card, and also a description of his build and footwear.
'That officer then took this ID card to Rotherham mortuary where at that time the deceased victim of the collision was booked in as an unknown male.
'Upon considering the comparison between the male's features against the ID, and also considering the descriptive details of build and clothing, the officer was satisfied that this was the body of Trevor Wynn.
'A separate officer describes attending the scene of the collision and travelling in an ambulance with the surviving male. This male had been responding to paramedics at the scene but had been sedated as part of their treatment.
'The officer describes being passed the name Joshua Johnson by officers at the scene, and was able to obtain a photograph from Mr Johnson's driving licence.
'The officer liaised with medical staff and the photograph was compared against the casualty. Those present were then satisfied that this person was Joshua Johnson.'
Photographs of the two teenagers do certainly show that they looked incredibly alike, but it's astonishing that further checks were not made, particularly given the technological advances that make DNA identification a relatively simple process.
Also astonishing, perhaps – and certainly a matter of concern – is the fact that there is no agreed national standard when it comes to how the formal identification process is carried out.
In the UK, police officers at an accident scene do not formally identify bodies by name. Their job is to secure the scene, recover the deceased and assign each body a unique reference number.
Formal identification happens later, under the authority of the coroner, but obviously police evidence is a key component.
While guidelines from the College of Policing explicitly warn about the dangers of relying on 'visual identification', and recommend the use of 'primary identifiers' such as dental records, DNA and fingerprints, there is no set criteria.
Indeed a spokesperson for the College of Policing confirmed to us that 'every situation is different, and individuals use investigatory initiative. Hence, different aspects of our guidance may apply to situations.'
That 'investigatory initiative' will now come under scrutiny, but what's particularly alarming about this case is that further checks, normally made when a body arrives at the morgue, appear not to have happened.
It isn't unheard of for a mistake to be picked up before a family is informed, but it's unprecedented for things to go as far as they did in this case.
And what about formal identification by the family?
Again, contrary to what many believe, this is not a legal requirement and, in this case, it appears the Wynn family did not view the body they believed to be TJ.
Jonathan Stoner insists police explicitly 'told the [Wynn] family not to view him', due to the injuries sustained. 'They told them he had an instant death and seeing him may be traumatic and they had no reason to question this. Why would they?
'Their son had died and they had to prepare his funeral. It was such an emotional time.
'They hadn't seen his body, as far as I was aware, but they went to the morgue to get him ready for his funeral.
'They chose TJ's favourite clothes and they put things like Christmas gifts he had never been given and souvenirs in his coffin. They wanted to do him proud for a special send off.
'They had no idea they were dressing and preparing another child for his funeral.'
A police source said, 'Any family visits to the hospital or mortuary/funeral home did not form part of this identification process', but also said that they 'did not prevent the parents from visiting the victims'.
The families involved are still clearly reeling and their immediate priorities will be with their respective sons – one living; one dead.
TJ is still in hospital and facing a long and uncertain recovery. The funds raised for 'his' funeral will now go towards his rehabilitation.
What a journey he has ahead – back from the dead, but into a world where he can read his own 'in memoriam' messages online.
And yet he is the lucky one. Joshua's family are now arranging his funeral.
Additional reporting: Tracey Kandohla and Mark Lister