Things aren't looking so good for the Medical Examiner's office. Back in 2002 a 27-year-old named Richard Massey disappeared in New York. According to the NY Post, the computer programmer had just moved here from England, reportedly started acting "bizarrely" and was taken to St. Vincent's Hospital. Allegedly, in prior weeks, he was scared someone was going to hurt him. He checked himself out of the hospital on December 19th, and was never seen again.
Three months later his body was found floating in the East River, but the ME's office didn't inform his family, who had put out a search for him. Instead, they buried his body at a potter's field on Hart Island, and didn't inform Massey's family until October 2008. For some reason, upon discovering his body he was marked a John Doe — despite there being a missing persons report filed.
The family has now filed a lawsuit, seeking unspecified damages and accusing the city, police and medical examiners of negligence. Their lawyer states, "There was a breakdown in communication between the ME and the NYPD." Indeed.
