Funeral planned – police give false news of death to family

Sheila Nagengast of Staten Island was devastated when she received the news that her 44-year-old sister Denise had been killed in a traffic accident, but grief gave way to anger when she learned 18 hours later that it wasn’t true.

Lawyer: ‘Funeral has already been planned’
“She had to inform the rest of her family, including her children, about what had happened. “It went as far as discussing funeral planning and whether or not an autopsy should be performed – decisions you make when discussing the death of a loved one,” the family’s attorney said , Glen Devora, to NBC keep going.

Nagengast asked how they identified her sister. “They said there was some sort of ID they could use to identify her,” she reported, according to the Daily Mail. Another sister finally met Denise – “healthy and happy,” as Nagengast said.

Here you see a photo of Sheile Nagengast:

Police admit: “misidentified”
Instead of Denise, a 37-year-old died in the accident, as police admitted on Wednesday. “During our initial investigation, the NYPD misidentified the victim of a fatal car crash,” they said in a statement. “After further investigation, proper identification was made and the family was subsequently notified. We apologize for any unfortunate distress we may have caused.”

Police “did not fully explain how the confusion occurred,” Nagengast’s lawyer said. He criticized that two families were upset by the mistake. He now hopes to find out how the error occurred.

The accident took place on the evening of October 30. An 18-year-old driver hit a pedestrian. The driver remained at the scene of the crash and was not arrested, police said.