In Jacksonville, Florida, Sandy Betts smiles footage sitting on the cabinets above her desk.
"I created these memorabilia of Kyle," says Betts. The outgoing younger man is hugging his mother in a single picture. He is surrounded by household and associates in others.
"He was not shy." She says her son liked his household, baseball and dancing. "He was very blissful."
Greater than 1,000 miles away, in Waco, Texas, Stephen Brady talks about his first-born son.
"He was my greatest good friend,' says Brady.
Davis Brady was additionally very near his household. He, too, liked baseball and music. "He was very sensible."
However for all of their sons' similarities, in addition they had some apparent variations. "They did not look something alike and [there was] an enormous age distinction," says Betts.
Davis Brady was 22 years outdated and 6'1″. He had a light-weight complexion with strawberry blonde hair.
Kyle Betts was 36 years outdated and 5′ 4″ tall. He had a darkish complexion with darkish hair.
That makes a lot of what now haunts these two households even more durable to grasp, CBS Dallas studies.
Florida paperwork present what occurred
In line with a Jacksonville Sheriff's Workplace Incident Report, Brady and Betts had been discovered collectively in a Jacksonville condo. They had been victims of deadly unintentional overdoses. Within the paperwork, the Jacksonville detectives describe every sufferer, however the Betts and Brady households say these entries are both incorrect or incomplete.
Detectives listing their hair, complexion, and construct as the identical, stating each had strawberry-blonde hair, a good complexion and medium construct. The load for one of many males is listed however the different's is lacking.
"His complexion wasn't truthful and white," says Betts. "They mentioned they had been each blondes."
The paperwork anger Betts. "How can they be so tousled on all of this?"
In paperwork labeled as Log-In Receipts, when the our bodies are transported to the Medical Examiner's Workplace, Betts is listed as a case quantity ending in -65. Brady's case quantity ends in -66.
Each households say, on these paperwork, the clothes descriptions for his or her sons show their identities are reversed. In a single instance, Kyle Betts -- an avid Jacksonville Jaguars soccer fan -- all the time wore a Jaguar hat. The report says Davis Brady had on the one hat. Betts says she is aware of her son had his hat on.
"They'd them switched immediately from the very starting,' says Betts.
Post-mortem exams, timestamped 24 hours after the Log-In Receipt, present the case numbers for every man are switched.
They need to appropriately match every man to his case quantity.
Nonetheless, months later, toxicology studies reverse these authentic case numbers as soon as once more. The numbers seem incorrect within the authentic digital variations of the paperwork, however by hand, somebody has marked on the studies. He/she crosses out the title on every man's documentation and writes the opposite man's title within the column close to the case numbers. As soon as once more, the boys and their circumstances numbers ought to appropriately match, however there was nonetheless confusion.
"I imply it is simply JSO (sheriff's workplace) disrespect from the start and the inconsistency between a transition from JSO to the Medical Examiner's Officer," says Betts, pissed off on the path of confusion within the paperwork.
Our bodies switched
The Medical Examiner's workplace was speculated to ship Davis Brady's physique to his dwelling in Waco.
However on the viewing, his father says the household made a stunning discovery.
"The physique rolls in, and I mentioned, 'That's not the hair shade. …The beard shade wasn't proper. …The entire complexion wasn't right.' "
Annoyed and indignant, Brady says, "I appeared, and I mentioned, 'That's not my son!' "
Brady's mother instantly began making frantic calls to Florida, to Betts' mother.
"It was a really distraught message," says Betts. "'Your son is right here.' And he or she's [Brady's mom] in Texas."
One other devastating discovery
The 2 households had been about to comprehend, simply days earlier than that decision, the Betts had requested that their son, Kyle, be cremated.
"In my thoughts, quick panic as a result of I believed to myself, 'I do know the place her son is. If my son is there, her son has already been cremated.'"
Betts obtained on the cellphone.
"I contacted our funeral dwelling immediately," Betts recalled, explaining what she mentioned. "' So, please inform me Kyle has not been cremated but.'" Pausing and heartbroken, Betts explains what she heard subsequent. "'Cremated, at the moment!'"
"Of all of the timing," she mentioned. "He had simply been cremated when she [Brady's mom] had reached out to me."
To make issues much more painful for the Brady household, cremation is towards their non secular beliefs.
"Within the Mormon Church … they put together for burial by embalming," defined Brady. "We by no means obtained to see my son's physique in any respect. We had been returned ashes."
Right now, Brady is nearly in disbelief. "I am going to by no means have the ability to bury my son's physique. … We obtained the ashes and I am nonetheless unsure that is Davis."
Brady says there have been too many errors to know what's correct. "I've doubts."
Authorities affirm the swap
"At that time, I reached out to the medical expert," says Betts, including that the medical expert's workplace confirmed the combo up.
Betts says the affirmation got here with an upsetting provide.
"Their repair was the simple, least costly repair potential. 'Would you want for us to get him cremated?'" mentioned Betts.
An outraged Betts replied, "'Hell no! You are not cremating my son over there in Texas.' How do I completely know that is even my son in Texas? …This poor mother wants her son's physique moved to Texas and I undoubtedly need my son in Jacksonville.'"
How frequent is that this?
Each households are exploring authorized choices. Digging via the paperwork, they each blame the Jacksonville Sheriff'sOffice and the Medical Examiner's Workplace District IV in Florida.
This all raises the query about how frequent that is.
"Uncommon," says Jim Bates who, for 30-years, has been the director of The Funeral Shoppers Alliance of North Texas. This can be a place shoppers can flip to with questions on the best way demise care is dealt with for a liked one.
Bates says he hears a whole bunch of complaints a 12 months — sometimes in regards to the preparation or look of a physique — however not about physique switches.
Concerning physique switches, Bates says, "I am unable to consider a single time."
CBS Dallas obtained state data displaying that, since 2015, the Texas Division of Banking has obtained 4 related complaints. Digging via pages of paperwork and complaints, the station found accusations and footage of gravesites involving family members listed in studies:
"Not buried within the plot"
"Two our bodies in a single grave" and an "Empty grave"
"On this plot by mistake"
"Positioned within the incorrect plot"
Conflicting opinions
CBS Dallas additionally reached out to 2 Texas attorneys who focus on funeral malpractice circumstances.
It requested them how frequent physique switches are.
"There's truly no option to know," says Alex Katzman. "If there is a cremation, if it is closed caskets, it might occur extra typically, and I think it does, than folks report."
Lawyer Mark Greenwald says nationwide, the variety of related headlines and the variety of legislation corporations dealing with these circumstances show that physique switches will not be unusual.
"We have dealt with circumstances the place they've misidentified the physique on the mortuary … misplaced the physique on the funeral dwelling …made a mistake of being cremated," says Greenwald.
Describing how gut-wrenching it may be for households, he says, "We've actually needed to dig folks up from the bottom who weren't speculated to buried in that place."
Katz and Greenwald inform CBS Dallas that collectively, they've two pending circumstances proper now hauntingly much like the one involving the Betts and Brady households.
Carrying the heartbreak
"That is all I've of my son," Davis says, a small chain he is holding in his hand. Davis Brady's mother gave him a cremation bracelet with Brady's stays.
Together with heartache, Brady's father now carries what he says he can solely assume are, his son's ashes.
"Somebody must be held accountable," he says. "Accountability of the Medical Examiner and the county detectives on the case…"
Brady says his household has by no means obtained a cellphone name or apology from anybody.
Each households say the path of paperwork solely raises extra questions on what went incorrect.
"I really feel like they simply completely forgot he was a human being, that he was someone's son, someone's brother, that he was liked," says Betts.
Jacksonville Sheriff's Workplace response
In an announcement supplied to CBS Dallas sister station WJAX-TV in Jacksonville, the Sheriff's Workplace there mentioned, "Because of Marsy's Legislation, we're not at liberty to reply to questions which will establish or affirm victims of a criminal offense. Nonetheless, the Medical Examiner's Workplace is chargeable for the identification and launch of our bodies. Within the situation you described beneath, you would wish to succeed in out to them for extra info."
Duvall County Medical Examiner's response
This Medical Examiner's workplace advised WJAX-TV it couldn't remark because of "pending litigation."
Methods to stop this from occurring to the one you love
Jim Bates, Mark Greenwald and Alex Katzman all supplied ideas for what you must do to establish the physique of a liked one earlier than he/she is laid to relaxation:
1. For those who can not personally establish the physique your self, you must ship a good friend or member of the family.
2. If nobody is offered to establish the physique in particular person, ask to make use of Zoom or FaceTime so you'll be able to see it occur.
3. The physique ought to have a tag, sometimes on the foot or toe. You must ask to see the tag and match the title and case quantity to the physique and every doc.
4. If a demise care service doesn't enable this identification, or if it supplies any purple flags, bear in mind you'll be able to transfer the one you love to a different funeral dwelling.
5. For those who really feel hurried via the burial or cremation course of, it is a purple flag. Any delay ought to solely value you about $50 a day for refrigeration of a physique. Many locations will attempt to cost you as much as $800 a day. That could be a not a good apply, in accordance with Bates.
6. Demise care companies typically use interns who want hours to grasp their abilities. These interns must be supervised by funeral administrators. They shouldn't be working alone.
7. You must look carefully on the positive print in your contract for references to interns and all different practices.