Mason - A scene of hysteria at the site of a drunken driving accident started a series of events that led to the switching of two 13-year-old Lansing boys’ bodies, an investigation by the Ingham County Sheriff’s Department concluded.
Kyle Karp and Thomas Schneider were hit April 6, 2001, while walking with friends along Lake Lansing Road in Lansing Township. The boys’ friends correctly identified the two at the scene, but paramedics and police never had a firm grasp on which boy was which, officials said at a press conference Wednesday.
“My common sense tells me that in those nine minutes at the scene the paramedics were not concerned with who’s who - they were trying to save lives,” Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth said.
The boys died at Sparrow Hospital within four hours of each other.
After they died, the families of the two boys misidentified them. Kyle, who was identified as Thomas, was cremated and his ashes given to Thomas’ family. The Karp family buried Thomas thinking he was their son Kyle.
The mix-up was discovered in mid-May when investigators exhumed Thomas’ body after inconsistencies were found in autopsy reports.
Investigators said the confusion began when Kyle Karp’s mother arrived at the accident scene. A Lansing Township police officer and a witness differ on which boy Debra Karp said was her son when she reached the site.
The mother then got into one of two ambulances on scene. She later told investigators she didn’t know which child she was riding with.
But while in the ambulance, according to the investigation, Debra Karp told paramedics the boy in the ambulance was 13 “because that’s my son.”
At Sparrow Hospital, the boys were given color-coded tags - hospital procedure for patients who haven’t been identified. Both boys received severe facial trauma in the accident.
Although Kyle was sent to the morgue identified as Thomas, at least one person recognized the body was not Thomas’ during the visitation and rumors began circulating.
Meanwhile, Kyle’s mother began to suspect something was wrong when she requested the boy she was burying wear his earring. The mortician noticed the boy’s ear was not pierced.
Thomas was buried, believed to be Kyle.
Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said the only person who could be held criminally liable for the mix-up is the person who cremated Kyle thinking he was Thomas.
But with Kyle’s father, Rob Karp, sitting in front of him, Dunnings said no one would be prosecuted.
“The interest of justice would not be furthered by any prosecution,” Dunnings said.
“I’m not laying blame. I’m not saying this is anyone’s fault.”
Dunnings said there was a lesson to be learned from the tragedy as Karp buried his head in his hands: Everyone from paramedics to doctors and morticians need to re-examine their procedures for identifying bodies to “ensure that no family ever again has to have two funerals for the same child.”
Karp declined to comment.
But Karp’s partner, Jen Stuart, said the family isn’t pleased with the results of the sheriff department’s investigation. Stuart refused to shake the sheriff’s hand when he introduced himself to the family before Wednesday’s press conference.
“Their job is to serve and protect the innocent and they haven’t done that here,” she said.
Tara May can be reached at maytara@msu.edu.
