YOUNGSTOWN Family waits for results of DNA testing on remains

The final payment was sent, and the results are expected any day.
By SHERRI L. SHAULIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Family members are still waiting to find out if Patrick L. Lantz was buried in the wrong plot almost 30 years ago.
Samples were sent in early August by the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown to DNA Analysis Inc., a testing facility in Cincinnati. The results have been slow coming.
"Each week, they told me they thought they had a good sample and that they should have an answer that week," said former Youngstowner Sherry Lantz of Fort Myers, Fla.
"I know they did six separate test samples of the hair, but they said they were never able to get any conclusive results.
"This last time I spoke to them, they said they believed they had a really good sample from the skull and they would finally get an answer," said Sherry, Patrick's sister.
Sherry, her brother, Joe, and their mother, Edna Carder, agreed to the diocese's offer to have the testing done to find out once and for all if it is Patrick's body.
It all began in 1999, when Lantz family members wanted to relocate their brother and sister from the children's section of Calvary Cemetery to another section, next to their father's grave.
What happened
At that time, workers at the South Belle Vista Avenue cemetery on the West Side, admitting a mistake was made during Patrick's original burial in 1974, removed a body from one location and Patrick's headstone from another.
Cemetery officials said Patrick was buried where he was supposed to be, but his headstone was placed in the wrong location.
Both the coffin and the marker were placed next to Sherry and Joe's father, but the family was never sure if it really was Patrick.
They asked the diocese to perform the DNA testing, but were told that they would have to pay the $5,000 costs and would be reimbursed for half that if tests proved it was Patrick and the cemetery had made a mistake at the original burial.
Not satisfied with that offer, the Lantzes and their mother filed a lawsuit in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court in June.
In early August, the court ruled the diocese would pay all costs associated with the testing.
What is thought to be Patrick's body was disinterred, and the skull was sent to the Cincinnati lab.
Representatives from DNA Analysis could not be reached.
Sherry Lantz said she when she spoke to Monsignor Robert J. Siffron at the diocese, he told her the final payment had been sent earlier this week. She said the results were to be mailed to the diocese once payment was received.
Siffron could not be reached.
Lantz said if the results show it is Patrick, she hopes to return so she and her family can finally lay Patrick, and the entire matter, to rest.
"I am just ready for it to be over," she said.
slshaulis@vindy.com