Back from the dead! Oregon man, 23, declared deceased by medical examiner appears ALIVE weeks later: Family was sent death certificate and urn of stranger’s ashes
- An Oregon man was confused when he discovered he had been declared dead by medical examiners
- Tyler Chase, 23, had his wallet stolen at a drug rehab center and when the thief died of a drug overdose, he was mistakenly identified as Chase
- An urn containing the stranger’s ashes and an official death certificate were sent to Chase’s family
An Oregon man, 23, who was declared deceased, turned up alive weeks later after an urn of ashes and a death certificate were sent to his family.
On September 11, 2023, Tyler Chase was declared dead of a drug overdose after living in a recovery program for several months.
Chase previously struggled with substance abuse on the streets and had not been in contact with his family for years.
In a bizarre twist, Chase was stunned to learn that his food assistance benefits were inactive in October because he was supposedly “dead.”
He went to the Department of Human Services for help and confused employees questioned him and demanded to see his ID because records showed the 23-year-old was deceased.
Tyler Chase (pictured), 23, was declared deceased but turned up alive weeks later after an urn of ashes and a death certificate were sent to his family
A man, who was believed to have stolen Chase’s wallet at the same drug recovery center, was the person of the dead body in Portland.
“They said, ‘Can we see your ID?’ So I gave it to them,” Chase recalled. “Then they seemed as confused as I was, and they said, ‘It says here you’re dead.'”
Chase was shocked by the confusion, but he still couldn’t contact his estranged family.
It turns out that an urn full of a stranger’s ashes and a formal death certificate were sent to Chase’s family.
Officials found Chase at the recovery center in Oregon on December 19 and admitted they had made a big mistake.
A man, who was believed to have stolen Chase’s wallet at the recovery center, was the person whose dead body was in Portland.
Medical examiners used a temporary ID card from the stolen wallet to determine the deceased’s identity – and reported Chase as dead.
“So they found a paper ID of mine that was smeared and everything, and they said ‘that’s Tyler John Chase,’ so they listed him as me,” Chase said. “And then they informed the family as protocol.”
It turns out that an urn full of a stranger’s ashes and a formal death certificate were sent to Chase’s family
Officials found Chase at the recovery center in Oregon on December 19 and admitted they had made a big mistake
“We deeply regret that the misidentification occurred,” a provincial spokesperson said in a statement. “The misidentification occurred because the decedent was carrying Mr. Tyler Chase’s wallet and his official temporary Oregon driver’s license.”
The dramatic confusion has led to a change in protocols for declaring people dead by the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Going forward, all individuals found with a temporary state-issued ID should also be fingerprinted for positive identification to ensure this never happens again,” the statement said.