LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida mother announced she intends to file a lawsuit against the state medical examiner’s office after her son’s skull and spine were found in a bin inside the building.
According to her attorney, the mother — identified as Ruthel Forbes — received a message from the office earlier this year about the discovery.
“They found her son, Cedric Wayne McFadden’s skull and part of his spine in a bin, in their building, (nearly) 20 years after they were allegedly released to Summer’s Funeral Home in Ocala, Florida on June 15, 2005,” a release from the attorney reads.
In 2005, the Ocala StarBanner reported that McFadden was shot and killed during a robbery. David Lee — who was later convicted in McFadden’s murder — reportedly led investigators to McFadden’s body, which was left in a pond behind Lee’s home near Belleview.
With McFadden’s body having been heavily decomposed by that point, the family didn’t do a viewing, so they never saw his body.
Instead, the Medical Examiner’s Office allegedly released his body to an Ocala funeral home.
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But during a news conference on Monday, McFadden’s sister Jacqueline Forshee said she received a call on her phone from the Medical Examiner’s Office on Feb. 11 asking for Forbes.
“She asked me if I knew Cedric McFadden and did I know how she could get in contact with Ruth Forbes,” Forshee said. “And I said, ‘Yes, I do know him; that is my brother. And I am actually with my mother at church right now.”
Forshee said she learned that her family hadn’t actually buried all of McFadden following his murder, as his skull and spine had just been uncovered at the office.
While the Medical Examiner’s Office provided them with options, Forshee added, the office also “rushed us to make a decision.”
“It took the bandage off of a wound, obviously. It caused a lot of stress...” she explained. “We had to go through a burial twice, which I feel was unnecessary.”
According to Forshee, the family didn’t want to unearth McFadden’s casket, so they had the newly discovered remains sealed in a vault near the original casket.
Forshee also claimed that the Medical Examiner’s Office provided no reason for the error.
“My first question to her was, ‘How do I know I buried my brother the first time?’ If that was truly him that we buried?” she said.
The attorney’s release accuses the Medical Examiner’s Office of the following:
- Failing to use ordinary care to keep McFadden’s remains intact or providing all body parts to Summer’s Funeral Home
- Failing to follow all of Forbes’ other instructions as the legally authorized person per state law
- Failing to maintain proper records pertaining to McFadden’s remains
- Failing to employ policies and procedures to ensure McFadden’s remains were properly released to Forbes per state law
As a result, the release says that Forbes intends to bring legal action against the Lake County Medical Examiner by Nov. 3.
News 6 reached out to the Lake County Medical Examiner’s Office for a statement and is awaiting a response.
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