CHICAGO (WLS) — The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office says it handles 7,000 cases a year, the vast majority without any issue, and with identification.<\/p>\n
Now, a fifth family is turning to the I-Team about delays. They are asking why it took almost two years to identify their loved one.<\/p>\n
ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n “In a drawer, sealed up,” said Deborah Brandon.<\/p>\n Deborah says she has nightmares about her son, 39-year-old Marlon Brandon, sitting in the Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office for about a year and nine months.<\/p>\n “I don’t understand. I never will understand it,” Deborah said.<\/p>\n Marlon was found in the Chicago River in August 2021, but the medical examiner’s office was unable to identify him until Mother’s Day in 2023. Marlon’s brother, Marcus, got the call.<\/p>\n “It’s hard, because they explain it to your family,” Marcus said.<\/p>\n The family said Marlon struggled with mental illness. They were calling jails and hospitals, but they did not think to check with the medical examiner’s office.<\/p>\n SEE ALSO |<\/strong> Man’s body sat unidentified at Cook County morgue for more than 2 years, family says<\/a><\/p>\n “All kinds of thoughts were running through my mind. But I never thought that he was in the Cook County morgue. That thought never crossed my mind,” Deborah said.<\/p>\n The family says police would not file a missing person’s report. The Chicago Police Department did not comment on the family’s specific allegation, but pointed to state law, saying department members “may not refuse to complete a Missing or Found Person Report on any grounds.”<\/p>\n Since 2021, the I-Team has uncovered four similar complaints about bodies sitting unidentified in the Cook County morgue. In each case, the medical examiner’s office said it did all it could with the information available.<\/p>\n “I could not believe that other people were going through this same identical thing,” Deborah said.<\/p>\n The medical examiner says when Marlon was found in the Chicago River, he did not have an ID. The medical examiner says the Chicago Police Department “tried to obtain fingerprints but were unable to do so due to the level of decomposition.” The morgue says it also submitted a DNA sample to authorities.<\/p>\n READ MORE | <\/strong>New IL legislation proposal aimed at reforming how medical examiners ID bodies, notify family<\/a><\/p>\n Then, in September 2021, the ME posted information in the “unidentified” section of the website, and the case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. There was also another failed attempt to take fingerprints in 2022.<\/p>\n The ME says in April 2023, it used the FBI’s “enhanced identification methods,” and they “invited the FBI to our office in April 2023 to obtain fingerprints from all unidentified decedents, including this case.” That’s when Marlon’s identity was confirmed, and the ME says his family was located a month later.<\/p>\n “The answer was, we couldn’t identify him, and his body had been in the Chicago River too long,” Marcus said.<\/p>\n So, why did it take so long to get the FBI involved? In its statement, the medical examiner said it had not learned of those enhanced methods until April 2023, and that “in 2024, the FBI formalized partnerships nationwide.” The FBI told the I-Team that it “regularly works” with medical professional partners to help identify remains. The Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office declined repeated requests for an on-camera interview.<\/p>\n “Decomposed bodies are something that are very common,” said Los Angeles County Medical Examiner Chief of Medical Examiner Investigations Brian Elias.<\/p>\n Los Angeles County is the only county larger than Cook County.<\/p>\n When asked if his office generally uses the FBI to help identify decomposed bodies, Elias said, “We don’t, as a rule, use the FBI for that; there are avenues where we do work with them in certain cases.”<\/p>\n