The medical examiner’s office told a father in upstate New York that his missing daughter was dead.
But months later, he learned it was not true. She is alive here in Detroit.
As the family tries to make sense of the news and reconnect with her, many are wondering how this could have happened.
Mark Crews, the father, and Adam Bello, an executive in Monroe County, New York, are at the center of this shocking story.
In 2021, Shanice Crews dropped her two children off with family members and disappeared.
“I looked for her for three years, hard. I never gave up,” Mark said.
Mark even hired a private investigator who tracked Shanice to Detroit and believed she had become involved in a religious cult.
“We went on with our life just raising the kids because she was 28 years old when she left us, so she’s a grown woman,” Mark said.
In April of 2024, a Rochester, New York, police officer showed up at the door.
“We’re sad to inform you that your daughter Shanice Crews has passed away. If you need to know anything else, go to the medical examiner’s,” Mark said the officer told him.
The family rushed to the medical examiner’s office.
“When I went to try to identify the body, they said your daughter has been in here since February, and it was April then. The state of her body—you can’t come in and see her,” Mark said.
The body, found in a wooded area, had to be identified using dental records.
Mark had the body cremated and held a memorial service for his daughter.
Months of grieving went by until one day, he received a picture from a stranger on Facebook.
It was Shanice, in Detroit, holding up a certificate dated November 2024.
The family raced back to the medical examiner’s office. They were asked if one of Shanice’s children could provide comparable DNA.
“They took the DNA test, submitted it, and it’s not a match,” Mark said.
Shanice is not dead. Those remains are not hers.
“Who is this female that we have in the urn?” Mark questioned.
The medical examiner’s office asked for the ashes back. The situation worsened when the family realized they had mixed the remains with Shanice’s mother’s and put them in jewelry that they all wear.
“Now we don’t know whose ashes we mixed with her deceased mom,” Mark said.
The medical examiner would not speak about the case, but the county executive did.
When asked by a reporter how a mixup of this magnitude could have happened, Bello said, “Obviously, no family should ever have to go through what this family is going through right now.”
He continued:
“My understanding of it was they did have the remains of someone that had a dental record that could be matched. They went through the process and found what they thought was a match. Frankly, it was looked at by two other professionals who said it was a probable match,” Bello said.
He added, “There are also other things that could take place and other factors, so that’s what is being investigated now.”
Investigators are looking into the possibility that someone used Shanice’s identity and insurance information to get dental work done, which generated the dental record used to identify the body.
“This is turning into a very unusual case for every professional we’ve talked to who has looked at this,” Bello said.
When asked what changes have been implemented to prevent this from happening again, Bello said, “I’ve set a number of policies in place. We do have a new contractor working on it. We’ve asked for a second opinion, particularly on this case, to get to the bottom of it.”
He continued, “We decided to change the policy so that when a match is made between an individual and a dental record, we’re also going to engage in DNA testing with family members to back up the work done with the dental.”
When asked if it is more expensive to conduct DNA testing in addition to dental records, Adam said, “The medical examiner determines these decisions, and it’s based on what they have in front of them.”
That is of little comfort to the Crews family.
“I think they rushed to close a missing person case. I truly believe that, never thinking this would happen. If this didn’t happen, I was going to learn how to live without my daughter, thinking she was deceased. It’s just devastating, man. I wouldn’t wish this on nobody,” Mark said.
He is holding out hope that this gives him one more chance to reach his daughter.
“I just want her to know I love her, and she can come home anytime. We miss her. I got to find my daughter. Too many sleepless nights, you know?” Mark said.
Mark hopes Shanice might see this interview and come home if she can.
Experts say it is not uncommon for people living on the streets or those who have been trafficked to share insurance information to get the medical care they need.
