Posted on 04/10/2006 8:53:21 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
UPDATED: Paper runs false obit mentioning wrong hospital and fake cemetery
Wcfcourier On Thursday, December 29, a man walked into the offices of the Waterloo Cedar-Falls Courier and handed in an obituary for 17 year-old Daniel "D.J." Reddout. The obituary ran the next day.
As the Courier would later explain, "The item said the West High student passed away at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Dec. 24, because of complications from surgery." It also noted he was buried at Osage Memorial Cemetery. The area is home to the Osage Cemetery, but there is no "Osage Memorial Cemetery." That was the first clue something was wrong. The obit also failed to mention any funeral home. But the paper didn't check either of these facts, or make a call to confirm the death. So the obit ran. UPDATE: And continues to run. The paper has yet to take it offline. You can read it here.
"But on Tuesday Waterloo police and The Courier received a report that people who know Reddout spotted him eating at the Happy Chef a full week after his alleged demise. Police continue investigating the matter," reported the paper in a corrective article published last Wednesday.
The kid was alive and well, which meant the paper was very embarrassed. From the article:
"He was in the restaurant Saturday and had the obituary with him," said Jeannie Heines, who works at Happy Chef, which also employs one of Reddout's grandmothers.
Waterloo police learned Tuesday through the Olmsted County Medical Examiner's Office in Rochester that no one by the name of Reddout had died at the hospital, said Capt. Bruce Arends.
"We have confirmed he is not deceased," Arends said. "He is alive and well and breathing."
It turns out that the man who submitted the obit was the boyfriend of the boy's mother.
Reddout's mother, Mary Jo Jensen, said her boyfriend, James Snyder, submitted the obituary after she told him her son was ill.
She said it was a case of bad communication. "I had let my boyfriend know he was doing very, very badly at the hospital, and jokingly I said that he had passed away, and he took upon himself to put the obituary in," Jensen said.
"It was a mistake, and I apologize for that," she said.
So it was a bit of a comical mix up, but most newspapers usually follow up with the funeral home or cemetery to verify the information. So there was a lack of proper procedure here. We know, we're no fun. But the paper is looking into it:
Courier Editor Saul Shapiro said this is the first time in his 23 years that he knows of where the paper ran a false obituary. He said the newspaper is looking at ways to take additional steps to confirm obituaries brought in by family members.
UPDATE (Jan 11): The paper now has a new policy regarding obituaries, and the police are looking into the matter for potential fraud charges. The paper has an article outlining the police involvement here. It also mentions the paper's new policy regarding obits:
Because of the false obituary, the Courier will now require that any death notice or obituary submitted directly by a family member or friend to be verified with official documentation or the name of a funeral home or organization responsible for the services.
Neither the death notice nor the obituary will be published until that information has been provided, under the policy.
The Courier is billing Snyder $50 for the obituary. All obituaries are paid for, and he requested extra information be included, so he was billed higher than the $35 normal fee.
Good stuff. About the police investigation:
Police are seeking people who may have donated memorial payments to a Waterloo family who submitted an obituary for a son that wasn't dead...
"If anybody did memorials, then we would like to know that," said Capt. Bruce Arends. "That would constitute a fraud."
It wasn't clear if anyone had made memorials, but the obituary asked that memorials be directed to the family.
Big thanks to Dan for keeping us in the loop on this story.
This is a very troubling story all over. First, I don't know why they just didn't put in for vacation time. Everyone has a certain amount of days on the book and you just tell someone ahead of time and go have fun. If you don't have the vacation days, then you take them without pay. If you have a death in the family and not have the days available, then you don't get paid. I guess I don't understand the motive of this story.
Not dead, probably just pining for the fjords.
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