http://www.ocregister.com/2017/06/23/fa ... an-is-son/. . . . . . . . .
The mix-up began on May 6 when a man was found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley.
Kerrigan, 82, of Wildomar, said he called the coroner's office and was told the body was that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan, 57, who is mentally ill and had been living on the street.
When he asked whether he should identify the body, a woman said — apparently incorrectly — that identification had been made through fingerprints.
"When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them," Kerrigan said. "If he wasn't identified by fingerprints I would been there in heartbeat."
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Further down,
Does anybody know the real story?. . . . . . . . .
Doug Easton, a Costa Mesa attorney hired by Kerrigan, said coroner officials told him they ran the fingerprints of the dead man through a law enforcement database but didn’t get a match. They then apparently used an old photo from Frank’s driver’s license, compared it to the body, and made visual identification, he said.
Meikle added that when her family told county officials that the younger Frank was alive, they were told that authorities had re-entered the man’s fingerprints into the database, on June 1, and learned they matched someone else.
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