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Tyler Chase speaks to Portland, Oregon, Fox affiliate KPTV in an interview. Chase, 22, was declared dead by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner, but he was actually alive and well. The office misidentified him after his temporary driver’s license was found on a dead man. (KPTV/YouTube)
Tyler Chase learned in October that his food stamps were no longer active so he went to Oregon’s Department of Human Services in Portland to see what was wrong.
What he found out next knocked him stone-cold dead.
“They were like, ‘Can we see your ID?’ So, I gave it to them,” Chase told Portland Fox affiliate KPTV. “Then they just looked as confused as I was, and they’re like, ‘Right here it says you are dead.’”
Turns out, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office declared the 22-year-old Chase dead of a drug overdose on Sept. 11, according to a statement sent to Law&Crime. A man found dead had Chase’s wallet and temporary driver’s license on him so the medical examiner’s office identified him as Chase. Officials believe the man whom they thought was Chase stole Chase’s wallet at an addiction recovery center where both were staying. The temporary license had Chase’s name but not a photo.
The medical examiner’s office notified Chase’s family of his death and on Oct. 1 the body was cremated. Officials issued a death certificate. The ashes went to the family.
Chase said in the interview with KPTV that he has long struggled with drug addiction and hasn’t had much contact with his family over the years.
The office realized their mistake in mid-December and found Chase at the recovery center, alive and well. They then informed his family.
“We deeply regret that the misidentification happened,” a county spokesperson said in the statement.
His family was stunned.
“I just lost it,” Chase’s cousin Latasha Rosales told NBC affiliate KGW. “It is so hard to believe how something like this could even happen. It just makes no sense to me.”
Officials said the medical examiner does about 3,500 death investigations a year. Misidentifications are “extremely rare but has been reported in a small number of cases nationwide,” the statement said. Families typically make identification of loved ones at the funeral home. It’s not clear whether this happened.
The office has also notified the family of the man who actually died.
In the future, the medical examiner must identify the body found with a temporary ID through fingerprints.
