Bungling by the authorities: Family searches for missing man for three years - Then they learn the truth
San Francisco (California/USA) - For three years, a family from the USA searched for the missing Jacob Bruce Chrisinger. Then an unbelievable truth came to light.
In 2021, a dead man was found in a run-down hotel in San Francisco; at the time, the coroner identified the deceased as James Robinson.
At the family's request, the deceased was cremated and the urn handed over to the bereaved, reports NBC Bay Area. They kept the urn on an altar in their own home, as is customary in many American families. For three years, the Robinson family included the - supposedly - dead James in their prayers.
Then came the shock: a friend saw the living James in San Francisco's notorious Tenderloin district, a hotspot of the drug scene. Kylie Robinson immediately set off in search of her father and finally tracked him down.
What followed was the obligatory DNA test, reports Newsweek. The dead man, who the Robinson family thought all those years was their beloved son/brother/father, was actually a man named Jacob Bruce Chrisinger.
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The coroners had apparently not bothered to clarify the identity beyond doubt. According to the family, the deceased was a drug addict and suffered from a mental illness.
"They didn't do a DNA test. They didn't let the family come to identify him. They didn't take into account that my brother is 5'6" and the other guy is much taller," laments Katieann Lowther, the deceased's sister. According to the family, the deceased was a drug addict and suffered from mental illness.
"I've spent the last three years looking for him, searching transitional homes and rehabilitation facilities, hospitals and prisons," said Charles Hines, Chrisinger's brother, who now has to live with the sad certainty.
"Every time I came to the Bay Area, I looked for places where he might be." The bereaved are now hoping for compensation and want to sue.
In the meantime, James Robinson, who has since been declared alive, has not been forthcoming. He is also severely addicted to drugs, lives on the streets and has so far refused rehab. He has since gone into hiding.
However, daughter Kylie refuses to give up: "We have a rough idea of where he is, and about every other weekend we go out and search a few houses in the hope of finding him."