Medical Examiner Kept Skull, Spine Of Man Buried 19 Years Ago, Family Says

A family is planning to file a lawsuit after a Florida man's skull and spine were discovered at a local medical examiner's office 19 years after he was buried, PEOPLE reports.

Cedric Wayne McFadden was murdered during a robbery by David M. Lee in 2005. Lee admitted to the crime and led police to a pond in Belleview where McFadden's body was partially submerged.

McFadden was reportedly buried at the time after the Lake County Medical Examiner’s Office released his body to a funeral home in Ocala, Florida.

After nearly 20 years, McFadden's family said they were recently told by the Lake County Medical Examiner's Office that his skull and part of his spine were found in a bin at the funeral home.

At the time of his death, McFadden's family said his body was so decomposed that they were unable to tell that his skull and spine parts were missing.

“Unfortunately my brother’s body was too decomposed, the state of it was not viewable,” sister Jacqueline Forshee said at a news conference. “When they released his body, we assumed that it was released in all of it.”

The Lake County Medical Examiner's office told Forshee that her brother was buried without all of his body parts.

“She proceeded to tell me that unfortunately ... we did not bury all of my brother when we buried him 19 years ago,” Forshee said of her call with the medical examiner.

McFadden’s mother, Ruthel Forbes, said she plans to sue the medical examiner's office.

“This is by far probably the most bizarre [case] that I've ever encountered in mortuary litigation,” Forbes' attorney, Ortavia Simons, said at a press conference. “Never ever heard such a awkward story.”

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