Tyler Chase, Oregon man mistakenly declared dead with his ashes given to family only to find out Multnomah County medical examiner’s office had misidentified man’s body.
An Oregon man legally declared dead earlier this fall was found alive months later. This despite the ‘homeless’ man’s family’ being notified that their son had died and passing on his ashes.
Tyler John Chase, 23, was declared dead from a drug overdose on Sept. 11, 2023.
Despite the Multnomah County medical examiner declaring the man deceased, the alleged deceased man’s family contacted KPTV at the end of 2023 to share their story after learning that their son was in fact very much alive on December 19.
‘Can we see your ID?’
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office admitted to the mistake and is now promising a policy change.
In a statement, the county admits it was not until Dec. 18 they realized an error had been made in declaring Chase deceased on Sept 11, and contacted Chase and his family the next day.
Chase has been living in a recovery program for the last several months after struggling on the streets with substance abuse and not having contact with his family for several years.
It wasn’t until the 23 year old being cut off from his food assistance benefits in October that Chase then went to the Department of Human Services for help. The department started questioning him after entering his social security number.
‘They were like, ‘Can we see your ID?’ So, I gave it to them,” Chase recalled. ‘Then they just looked as confused as I was, and they’re like, ‘Right here it says you are dead.’’
Chase says it was a shock and still had not been able to track down his family.
Change of protocol
What Chase did not know is that his family had received a formal death certificate, and an urn full of what turned out to be a stranger’s ashes – who the family at the time believed in earnest to be that of their son.
County officials informed Chase that the man who was found dead in Portland had been carrying his wallet which was believed to have been stolen from him at the recovery center where Chase is living. County officials and Chase say that in the wallet, the only form of identification was a temporary Oregon driver’s license.
Chase said officials from the medical examiner’s office found him at the recovery center on Dec. 19 and admitted to the mistake they made in wrongfully declaring him dead and mis-identifying the body.
The Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office has to date declined to name the real individual of the individual found deceased on September 11th.
Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office has since indicated it is making changes after what happened with Tyler Chase and the confusion experienced by his family.
Noted a release: ‘The medical examiner’s office also launched a comprehensive review to identify any gaps in current practices and is working to implement an institutional change. Going forward, all individuals who are found with a temporary state-issued identification must also have fingerprints submitted for positive identification, to ensure that this will never happen again.’
