N.B. mom in 'disbelief' when son found alive after RCMP tell her he's dead
CBC
Donna Price struggles to explain the range of emotions she's gone through after being told her 29-year-old son was the man found dead in the public washroom outside Moncton city hall Tuesday, only to find out hours later RCMP made a mistake.
"I don't even know how to describe how I'm feeling," she said. "It's almost like a numb feeling."
When officers first informed her and her son's stepfather David Price, "it was the grieving, it was the emotional trauma, it was sadness."
They faced the impossible task of breaking the devastating news to their son's sister, two stepsisters and elderly grandparents.
Extended family members made travel arrangements as they started to plan a funeral.
It was when Price sent someone to her son's home late Tuesday afternoon to collect paperwork and a few mementos that they discovered the truth.
"To their shock, he was in his bedroom," alive and well," Price said. "They called [to tell me], and I'm sure I asked them 10 times."
Her son, whom she declined to name to protect his privacy, was equally shocked.
"So there's two different emotions — from a deep grieving to joy but disbelief," said Price in an interview Friday.
"I'm very happy, but I'm also very sad and very disappointed how it transpired … And I feel really sad for the family of the deceased because 13 hours was robbed from them. That was their time."
Earlier in the day, lawyer Brian Murphy announced the Prices intend to "pursue legal remedies such as a lawsuit and the complaints commission process."
"This is an egregious case of police negligence causing mental anguish, but worse a case of indifference to those of a lower economic earnings bracket," Murphy said.
Price said her ex-husband and his wife are also part of the lawsuit. The family's main goal, she said, is to raise awareness to ensure "this never happens to another family."
They allege the RCMP did not follow the usual identification protocols because they believed the man who died was homeless or an addict.
