Michigan morgue debunks fake news site's report employee cremated while taking a nap
MACOMB COUNTY, Michigan -- The headline is a scorcher — It claims a Macomb County morgue employee was accidentally cremated when he took a nap and was mistaken for the dead, CBS Detroit reports. Phone lines lit up Wednesday at the County Medical Examiner's Office and the prosecutor's office as employees tried to reassure everyone the report was all fake.
"We don't do cremations here at all … and nobody who works here has been cremated," said Denise Calhoun, a Macomb Medical Examiner office worker.
"Why would they write this? I just wish someone had better things to do with their time."
The report is on a website with an abc news graphic and URL, and it's written by a man identified as David Foster. Close observers will see the website URL for the story has -us.com at the end, which is different than the actual abcnews.go.com site.
An email to the real ABC News seeking comment was not immediately returned.
The fake story was circulating on Facebook. It said 48-year old Henri Paul Johnson decided to take a nap on a stretcher after working for 16 hours straight.
"While he was sleeping, another employee mistook him for the corpse of a 52-year old car accident victim and carried him to the crematory. Ms. Davis claims that the young coworker who caused the accident was a new employee, and had forgotten to check for the toe tag to make sure he had the right body."
The report says criminal charges are being considered.
