LONGVIEW — The Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office mixed up the bodies of two babies in the summer of 2022 and a family ended up burying the wrong child, while the mother of the other child never received the remains.
Cowlitz County Coroner Dana Tucker said the error at the morgue was during her predecessor’s tenure.
The mother of the unclaimed body, Chelsea R. Hurst, 31, of Cowlitz County, told The Daily News in October that the coroner’s office confirmed the mistake. Hurst said the office told her the remains of both babies were supposed to be sent to the same Kelso funeral home but only Hurst’s child was sent.
That body was given to a different family and buried. After the switch was discovered, Hurst’s child was exhumed and cremated after not being claimed.
Timeline
April 30, 2022: Khalisee Brian Crabill is born.
June 7, 2022: Chelsea Hurst gives birth to a baby girl who is not breathing and declared dead.
July 1, 2022: Khalisee Brian Crabill dies.
July 2022: Khalisee Brian Crabill is buried at Green Mountain Memorial Gardens & Crematory in Kelso.
January 2023: The Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office confirms the Crabill family was given the wrong body. The Crabill family says they are contacted about the mistake.
Spring 2023: The body of Hurst’s baby is authorized to be cremated, according to coroner records.
After a two-year investigation by The Daily News, the coroner’s office admitted the errors to the newspaper in late December.
According to county morgue intake documents, both bodies were at the county morgue at the same time, and Tucker later confirmed this in an email.
Two-month-old Khalisee Crabill — the daughter of Vanessa Barker of Longview and Robert Crabill Jr. of Kelso — died July 1, 2022, at a Kelso home, according to a death certificate. The cause of death is not listed.
Hurst gave birth to a stillborn girl in June 2022.
The errors weren’t discovered until January 2023 after Tucker took office, she said. Tucker said an unnamed former employee did not follow protocol.
When the office discovered the mistake, Tucker said staff immediately contacted both families. Although, according to Hurst, she didn’t hear about the mistake until later.
A representative from Khalisee’s family confirmed they were informed of the mistake in January 2023. By that time, Hurst’s baby had been in Khalisee’s grave for about six months.
Representatives from Green Hills Memorial Gardens & Crematory declined to speak to The Daily News, as did former coroner, Tim Davidson.
Davidson ran for reelection in November 2022 but lost to Tucker.
Baby Khalisee
Khalisee’s grandmother, Maggie Waits of Longview, said the family was told in January of 2023 that the body they buried the previous summer was not her 2-month-old granddaughter.
Coroner’s office phone records also show the office called Crabill, Khalisee’s father, around the same time. The parents were not together. A crowdsourced fundraising website indicates Crabill died before July 2024.
Khalisee’s mom briefly spoke to The Daily News, while Waits provided details, though Waits declined to speak further once the family secured a lawyer.
Khalisee’s body remained at the morgue, according to Waits. Her “helpless little body laid on a slab for seven months before she could be laid to rest.”
The family was able to claim the remains.
Unclaimed remains
Hurst, a roofer, said she doesn’t remember much about the day she fell from a one-story building while on a job. Despite being 30 weeks pregnant, she only found out t the week before.
“I guess I blacked out because I don’t remember falling. I don’t remember anything.”
Medical staff at PeaceHealth St. John Medical Center attempted to resuscitate the infant. After about 45 minutes, the baby was pronounced dead, according to the a police report.
PeaceHealth spokesperson Debra Carnes said when fetal deaths occur at 20 weeks or more, the county coroner is contacted and the remains are turned over to the office.
Coroner’s office investigator Rebecca Fieken requested police assistance because she had previously conducted a death investigation involving Hurst in 2019 under similar circumstances, according to the report.
The report shows the baby died from lack of oxygen, but fentanyl and methamphetamine intoxication were significant factors. The manner of death is listed as undetermined.
Hurst said she never received her child’s remains. She said she called the coroner’s office and the funeral home right after her baby’s death, but both said the remains weren’t there. She said she also never received a death certificate.
Tucker said if bodies aren’t claimed, families don’t receive death certificates. When dead bodies go unclaimed, the county cremates the remains.
Tucker signed a cremation authorization for Hurst’s infant in April 2023, according to coroner records.
A May 2023 document confirms the office released Hurst’s infant to Green Hills Memorial Gardens & Crematory. That document is signed by former Cowlitz County Chief Deputy Coroner Kimberly Carroll and includes an order for a baby brass urn.
At the time Khalisee and Hurst’s baby died, funeral homes and mortuaries were required to hold unclaimed dead bodies for 90 days, but a bill in the 2024 bill in the Legislature shrunk the window to 45 days in June.
However, bodies in morgues can remain longer, at the discretion of the coroner.
Tucker said her office values its integrity and aims to prevent similar mistakes from happening again.
“We sincerely apologize for the distress this may have caused the families in their time of grief,” she wrote in an email.