The bodies of two Florida teenagers were misidentified by police and medical examiners in a disturbing mix-up that horrified their families, according to a report.
The parents of 15-year-old Samara Cooks and 18-year-old Deleigha Gibson are suing the Florida Highway Patrol and Escambia County’s medical examiners for wrongly identifying their daughters after they died in a car crash near Pensacola last July, according to CBS News.
Cooks’ mom, Ranada Cooks, says she discovered the heartbreaking mistake when she had asked a local funeral home to see her daughter’s remains before laying her to rest — only to learn the cadaver wasn’t actually her teenage girl.
“That’s when I noticed that it was not Samara and it was a mix-up,” she told the outlet. “I was thinking, ‘Well, maybe there’s a chance that she’s still alive.'”
The unsettling switcheroo has stunted her grief process, she claims.
“I’m not at peace. I’m not at peace. I feel like I haven’t had a chance to mourn,” Ranada said.
She added, “I don’t sleep. I think about what happened.”



Deleigha’s parents, Tammy and Demetrius Gibson, claim the director at another funeral home even tried to switch the bodies back without their knowledge, CBS reports.
“It was just heart-dropping,” said Deleigha’s father, Demetrius.
Samara CooksFacebookIn the lawsuit, the teenagers’ families say cops “incorrectly tagged the victims” and that Escambia County’s former medical examiner “did not enforce appropriate policies and procedures,” according to the outlet.
And, adding to the tragedy, the screwup wasn’t caught until after organs had been taken from the body of Samara Cooks, who was not an organ donor, according to the outlet.
The Florida Highway Patrol blamed the mix-up on the messy nature of the crash.
“Due to the nature of this crash involving multiple ejections, positive identifications at the scene were not made,” police told the outlet.
The families of Cooks and Gibson are also suing the two funeral homes, which did not return requests for comment.



