Three years ago, Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office sent the remains of Jeffrey Merriweather to St. Louis for testing, but they never arrived.
The medical examiner sent Merriweather’s remains via FedEx in a box weighing 18.6 lbs, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). It’s unclear why the examiner used FedEx, who prohibit customers from sending human remains via their service, the AJC noted.
What’s even more unclear is how Merriweather, a 32-year-old man, became nothing more than skeletal remains less than two weeks after he was seen alive, the AJC reported. The answer to this question is precisely why his remains were mailed to St. Louis via FedEx, the report continued.
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Merriweather was reported missing in June 2019, AJC reported. His body was discovered under an air mattress behind a house in southwest Atlanta ten days later, with court documents suggesting that he was shot to death in a drug deal gone wrong, the outlet noted.
What perplexed the medical examiner was that Merriweather’s body weighed just 34 lbs when it was discovered, a state of decomposition that typically takes more than a month to several years to occur, according to Explore Forensics. He had dreadlocks down to his waist and a number of tattoos, but the autopsy photos don’t contain anything his mother recognized as Merriweather’s, AJC continued.
The Merriweather family is still waiting for answers and closure from their son’s untimely passing, the AJC noted. Fulton County is the state’s largest medical examiner’s office, the AJC noted, and their actions may have violated federal law, the outlet continued. (RELATED: Father Of Brutally Murdered Child Beats The Hell Out Of Accused Murderer In Court Room)
Only the U.S. Postal Service is legally qualified to carry human remains around the country, and even then it’s only done so under strict guidelines, according to their website. Merriweather’s remains are thought to be lost in the enormous matrix of the FedEx organization, the AJC reported.