Indiana Coroner Blames Deputy In Mix-Up Of Crash Victims

INDIANAPOLIS -- An Indiana coroner blamed one of his deputies Friday for the mix-up that left one family thinking their daughter was dead, while another believed their daughter was alive.

For about a month, relatives thought Taylor University student Whitney Cerak died in a van crash. They buried the person they thought was her.

The family of Laura VanRyn -- who was also a student at the school -- believed they were keeping a vigil at her bedside. They later learned VanRyn was dead and Cerak was the survivor.

The coroner in Grant County, Ind., says a concerned deputy coroner advised Cerak's sister not to look at the body of the girl who died. But the coroner said the victim's head wasn't seriously injured, and that had the sister looked, the whole mix-up might have been avoided.

The coroner had said Wednesday that the mistake involving the similar-looking women started at the crash site, when someone -- possibly a law enforcement official or another emergency responder -- found the women's photo identification cards among strewn debris and matched them with the wrong woman. However, he changed that story on Friday, citing his deputy as the one responsible for the mistake.

Roommate Questioned Authorities' Mistake Weeks Earlier, Spokesman Says

Two weeks before officials announced a case of mistaken identity involving two crash victims, a college roommate of one questioned whether the survivor had been identified correctly, a Taylor University spokesman told Indianapolis television station WRTV-TV on Thursday evening.

A roommate of VanRyn approached school administrators two weeks ago with concerns that a woman in a coma was not VanRyn, school spokesman Jim Garringer said.

This week, officials announced that the comatose woman who was recovering in a Michigan rehabilitation facility was not 22-year-old VanRyn as previously thought, but Cerak, 19, who had been thought to be dead.

VanRyn -- not Cerak as first thought -- died in the April 26 crash on Interstate 69 near Marion, Ind. The revelation came as Cerak emerged from a coma in the Michigan facility and talked to VanRyn's family, and her identity was then confirmed by dental records.

Garringer said Thursday night that the school had listened to the roommate's concerns and that an internal investigation was still happening when news of the mix-up emerged this week.

"We had to weigh (the roommate's concerns) out and decide what to do with them," Garringer said. "This came against the backdrop of our certainty as well as, it seemed like, everyone else's that that was Laura."

Cerak, having been taken to a hospital with the wrong ID, was identified by VanRyn's family as VanRyn. VanRyn's body, taken to a morgue with Cerak's ID, was incorrectly identified as Cerak's body by the coroner's office and Taylor officials, the coroner said.

Cerak and VanRyn looked very much alike, authorities and family members said.

Previous Stories:

June 1, 2006: Coroner Sorry For Confusing Victim With Crash Survivor

May 31, 2006: Crash Survivor In Coma Mistaken For Student Who Died