Police Notify Mom Of Son’s Death Through Facebook
A Clayton County, Ga., mother is upset after local police used Facebook to notify her of her son’s death, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
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Anna Lamb-Creasey says she received a strange Facebook message asking her to call the Clayton County Police Department. But the message went to a box called “other,” which is used to receive messages from people who are not Facebook friends. So, for several weeks, the message went unanswered.
Eventually, Lamb-Creasey says she found the message. But she did know the person. “Misty Hancock. And I’m like who is this Misty Hancock,” Lamb-Creasey said. Her daughter got the same message. To add to the confusion, the profile photo was of Atlanta rapper T.I., making both daughter and mother assume the message was fake.
Meanwhile, Lamb-Creasey had been looking for her son, Rickie Lamb, who had been missing since Jan. 25. She even posted messages on his Facebook page in hopes he would reply. “Rickie where are you? Love mom,” she read. Unfortunately, Rickie was kill after being hit by a driver crossing a road on Jan. 24 around 11 p.m. The driver wasn’t charged.
The Journal-Constitutional has more on this sad story:
Then, on Valentine’s day, some 20 days after Lamb went missing, Lamb-Creasey’s daughter called the number on the Misty Hancock page and an officer gave her the bad news.
He was trying to reach them to tell them Lamb had died.
Lamb-Creasey is furious police couldn’t reach her by more conventional means and prevented her son from sitting in a morgue almost 20 days.
“They told me that they did the best that they can do. But I’m not sure about that. Cause if they can track a criminal down, they couldn’t track me down? They could have done better,” she said, in tears. “I’ve been on my job 13 years. They could have found me.”
She also can’t understand why the police department sent her a message using the “other” folder and why they used the Misty Hancock profile to contact her.
Lamb-Creasey says they should have used a police department Facebook profile. Lamb’s friend feels the same way.
“People need to know that it’s a police department trying to contact them. If you just have a picture of a rapper T.I. no one’s gonna take that serious,” Melissa Wilson said.
The Clayton County Police Department said they made every effort to reach Lamb-Creasey through more traditional means. They checked several addresses but could not reach anyone. The department is investigating why someone would use that Facebook account to reach Rickie’s family. His funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
