Parents find son alive after police notify wrong family

An Alaska couple, who had been told by police that their 29-year-old son had been killed in a car crash, were overcome with joy just hours later when they discovered him alive and well at his home in Anchorage, officials and media said on Friday. In a case of mistaken identity, an officer arrived at the couple’s Palmer home at about 3 a.m. on Thursday and told them that their son, Justin Priest, had died in a Juneau car crash a few hours earlier, Alaska State Troopers spokeswoman Megan Peters said. The grief-stricken parents, Jay and Karen, then drove to Anchorage to deliver the news of their son’s death to his brother, Cody, and to Justin’s long-time girlfriend, who lived with him. But Justin answered the door instead and was equally startled to see his parents and brother crying and shouting at 5:30 a.m.

There are no words. We just kept staring at him.

Karen Palmer, mother of the non-deceased

The Juneau Police Department said it had contacted the wrong Priest family while trying to identify the next of kin for 33-year-old Juneau resident Justin Donald Priest, who was the real victim from the Wednesday evening car crash. His vehicle struck a tree, police said. A woman passenger, 30, was treated for minor injuries and another passenger, a 50-year-old man, was taken to an area hospital with life-threatening injuries. Juneau police notified the real victim’s family on Thursday afternoon, and Police Chief Bryce Johnson apologized in a statement for the error and “for any anguish our mistake has caused.”

Odd News