Bereaved families are left in the dark by broken next-of-kin notification systems. Iceland declares a state of emergency after a long-awaited volcano eruption. And a Marvel star is dropped after an assault and harassment conviction.
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Families spend months searching for relatives, only to find out they’re dead
A mother in Louisiana spent more than eight months trying to track down her son, who she hadn’t heard from after he walked away from a drug rehab facility. Sherry Pfantz and her husband filed missing persons reports and cold-called morgues, hospitals and jails. They even made a four-hour drive to New Orleans to put up posters and search homeless encampments.
In May, Phantz called a coroner’s office in New Orleans, continuing her grim routine. But this time, she heard a different response: “We have him.” And then she learned her 34-year-old son Benjamin had already been cremated.
The Pfantzes are one of many families across the U.S. who found out too late their loved ones have passed.
Death investigation experts say these mistakes are preventable, the result of coroners and medical examiners with no written next-of-kin notification policies. And many do not contribute the names of the lost to the federal database for identifying the unnamed dead, NBC News has found. Read the investigation here.
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Iceland volcano erupts and spews fast-moving lava
A volcanic eruption lit up the sky over Iceland last night, creating a 2.5 mile fissure that has sent a river of lava flowing toward surrounding towns.
Police declared a state of emergency and tourists spots were closed as hundreds of cubic meters of lava spewed across the Reykjanes peninsula. The long-awaited eruption took place in the southwest of…
Read the full article here