Details Emerge About What Happened To Woman Found Alive At Funeral Home

More details are emerging about what happened to Timesha Beauchamp, the 20-year-old woman who was declared dead on Sunday only to be found alive and breathing by Detroit funeral home employees.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who was hired by Beauchamp's family, says that Beauchamp stopped breathing Sunday morning while having "apparently a seizure" and lost color in her face, the Detroit News reported. That's when a family member called 911 to their Southfield home.

"The entire sad scenario gets very, very murky" after police and paramedics arrived, Fieger said.

Paramedics with the Southfield Fire Department declared Beauchamp dead after they attempted to revive her for 30 minutes. Savannah Spears, Beauchamp's godmother who also has nursing experience, asked paramedics to check Beauchamp again because she felt a pulse.

“I was holding her in my arms and as I prayed, I was feeling for a pulse and I did feel a pulse it was faint but I felt a pulse," Spears said in an interview with WXYZ Detroit.

Southfield Fire Chief Johnny Menifee confirmed in a Wednesday press conference that a family member and a police officer asked paramedics to recheck Beauchamp, but paramedics said any signs of life were involuntary and that she was dead.

Beauchamp was born with cerebral palsy and received breathing treatments, the attorney said. It's unknown if that contributed to what happened.

With her death confirmed, Beauchamp was placed in a body bag taken to James H. Cole funeral home, Fieger said. Beauchamp spent almost two hours in the bag before a funeral home employee discovered she was still alive.

"It’s one of people's worst nightmares to imagine having an ambulance called and instead, sending you off to a funeral home in a body bag. The funeral home unzipping the body bag, literally, that’s what happened to Timesha, and seeing her alive with her eyes open," Fieger said.

Menifee said Fieger's statement is untrue because paramedics wouldn't have put Beauchamp in a body bag since its not part of their standard procedure.

The city of Southfield and Oakland County are conducting separate investigations into what happened.

Beauchamp is alive, but is in critical condition and is on a ventilator at a Detroit hospital, Fieger said.

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