ROCHESTER, N.Y. – A Rochester father was told by the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office that his missing daughter had been found dead. Months after he had the body cremated and held a memorial service, he learned it was not true.

“I looked for her for three years, hard, I never gave up,” says Mark Crews, Shanice Crews’ father.

In 2021, Shanice dropped off her two children to family members in Rochester and disappeared. Mark searched for his daughter, even hiring a private investigator who tracked Shanice to Detroit and believed she became 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,” Crews says.

The mix-up

But in April of 2024, a Rochester 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 office,” Crews recalls.

So, the family rushed to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s office.

“When I went to go try to identify the body, they was like your daughter has been in here since February and it was April and the state of her body, you can’t come in and see her,” Crews says. 

The ME’s office told him, the body had been found in a wooded area along the 100 block of Hudson Avenue in the City of Rochester and that a forensic dentist had identified it as Shanice using dental records.

Crews had the body cremated and held a memorial service for his daughter. Months of grieving went by until one day he got a picture from a stranger on Facebook. It’s Shanice, in Detroit, holding up a certificate she earned for volunteering dated November 2024.

The family raced back to the Medical Examiner’s Office. They were asked if one of Shanice’s children would provide comparable DNA. “They took the DNA test, submitted it and it’s not a match,” Crews says.

Shanice is not dead, the remains are not her.

The Medical Examiner’s office asked for the ashes back and offered to reimburse Crews for the cremation and urn but he can’t provide them because they mixed what they thought were Shanice’s remains with those of her mother who died years ago.  They then put the remains in jewelry that a number of family members have been wearing.  “Now we don’t know whose ashes we mixed with her deceased mom,” Crews says. 

Answers from officials

The Monroe County Medical Examiner Dr. Nadia Granger, refused News10NBC’s request for an interview. So, Investigative Reporter Jennifer Lewke went straight to her boss, Monroe County Executive Adam Bello.

Full interview with the County Executive:

Jennifer Lewke, News10NBC: “How on earth did something like this happen?”

Adam Bello, Monroe County Executive: “Obviously, no family should ever have to go through what this family is going through right now. My understanding of it was they did have the remains of someone that had a dental record that could be matched and so, they go through the process they go through and they found what they thought was a match and frankly it was looked at now by two other professionals who looked at it and said, it is a probable match but the science is imperfect and there are also other things that could take place and other factors there so, that’s what is being investigated now.”

The County is looking into the possibility that someone used Shanice’s identity or insurance information to get dental work done which generated the dental record used to identify the body.  Advocates tell News10NBC, it is not uncommon for people living on the streets or those who’ve been trafficked to share insurance information to get medical care they might need.

Adam Bello:  “This is tuning into a very unusual case for every professional we’ve talked to who has looked at this.”

Jennifer Lewke: “What changes have you asked for to try and ensure that this doesn’t happen again?”

Adam Bello: “So, I’ve set a number of policies in place. First, we do have a new contractor that’s working on it, we’ve asked for a second opinion particularly on this case to get to the bottom of it and we’re still investigating just to be clear, I’m not finished trying to figure out exactly what happened here. Particularly when we have a second professional from out of town who looked at this and said, no that was a reasonable conclusion,  That’s not going to satisfy me.  We also implemented a new DNA policy that there be a DNA test after the dental test when a case like this comes up and I also prepared a submission to the county legislature next month to add additional resources to the medical examiner’s office.  One of the things that I’ve come to learn is our ME’s office isn’t an accredited department, an agency with NYS which it can be and so we’re adding staff, we’re going to increase salaries to attract additional people to the office with the goal to add accreditation to that department.”

Jennifer Lewke: “Is it more expensive to do the DNA in addition to the dental records or why hasn’t that (already) been the policy?”

Adam Bello: “Well, these are decisions that are determined by the medical examiner, and it’s based on what they have in front of them. Remember, to do a DNA test you also have to have DNA to compare it to.  So, you can have a DNA sample from a deceased individual but if you don’t have something to compare that to, the DNA is not going to do you any good so, it depends on the condition of the deceased individual that we have, it depends on what other investigatory leads they have.”

What happens next

All of it, is of little comfort to the Crews family. “I think they rushed to close a missing person case, I truly believe that, not never thinking this would happen because if this didn’t happened I was going to just learn how to live without my daughter thinking she deceased, it’s just devastating man, I wouldn’t wish this on nobody,” Crews says.    

But he is at least 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, ya know,” he says through tears.

Just last year, the News10NBC’s investigative team reported on a backlog of bodies at the ME’s office. Because of that reporting, the county hired more people to help identify bodies faster but this happened in the midst of that.

There’s also the remaining question of who the remains actually are.  It’s a question we may never have an answer to.

It is still considered a cold case but there are dental and DNA records despite the cremation and the ME’s office says it will continue to work on the proper identification.