ALLEGHENY COUNTY, PA. Mom discovers son's ashes aren't really his

Officials found the man's body in a freezer at the coroner's office.
PITTSBURGH (AP) -- An Ohio woman thought she had the cremated remains of her son in an urn for the past nine months, but his body recently was found in a freezer in the coroner's office.
The Allegheny County Coroner's Office had two body bags -- one holding the body of Chad Mulvin, 29, and one containing his clothing. They now cannot find his clothes, but discovered last week that they still had his body.
County homicide detectives, preparing for the upcoming trial, discovered the mix-up last week when they asked to see the clothing and instead found the corpse.
"I've been doing this for almost 30 years, and I have never, ever experienced anything like this. I was in shock," Chief Deputy Coroner Joseph Dominick told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. "This family has gone through some significant tragedy in their lives and this exacerbates it."
Mulvin's father, Nevin Mulvin Sr., of Fredericksburg, Va., told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that relatives were stunned to learn about the mistake during a telephone call with prosecutors.
"We had to pick ourselves up off the floor. That's not what we were expecting to talk about," Mulvin said.
Chad Mulvin's mother, Nancie Nieradko, had what she believed was her son's remains in an urn at her home in Lakewood, Ohio, near Cleveland. She declined to comment.
Nevin Mulvin said he believes his son's clothing was incinerated instead of his body.
Unknown ashes
Dominick said he doesn't know what was released to the family or what was cremated. He said he doesn't believe the family got someone else's remains, because all that is missing from the coroner's office is the clothing.
"All of the bodies that should be here or were cremated by the coroner are accounted for. We don't have an answer," Dominick said.
The coroner's office is investigating the possibility that the tag on the body bag containing the clothing may have been wrong. The bag containing Mulvin's body was correctly labeled, Dominick said.
Corpses are identified with wristbands. Before releasing a body, a deputy coroner and the funeral director are supposed to open the body bag, check the wristband and match the body with a photograph, Dominick said. Both must sign a release form and initial the photograph, which is kept on file at the coroner's office.
Mulvin's roommate is charged with shooting him July 2 in a suburban Pittsburgh condominium they shared.
The family plans to get Mulvin's body and have it cremated.