Sister finds remains at brother's fiery crash site
BETHALTO, Ill. — The family of a man killed in a car crash say they found part of his remains at the fiery crash site.
Jared McPherson, 25, and his co-worker Brian Lee Hubbs, 37, were driving from Waterloo, Ill., to Bethalto on Aug. 8, when their truck veered off the road and hit a tree off Interstate 255 near Collinsville, Ill. The car burst into flames.
Mike McPherson, Jared's father, received a call from the St. Clair County Coroner's office about the accident.
He had been told "everything's fine," when that was not the case.
"We were told there was absolutely nothing left of my brother," said Karissa McPherson, Jared's sister. "Me and his fiancée, Candice, we just wanted to be where he was, the last time he was alive," she said.
When they arrived at the crash site, they found more than burned wreckage.
"I looked down and Candice was holding part of a skull. And I picked up a hand," Karissa McPherson said.
Mike McPherson said the St. Clair County Coroner's Office told him the remains may have been left behind accidentally after the fire was extinguished.
"I buried my son (Friday), but I didn't bury all of him," he said.
The coroner's office did not return calls for comment.
The McPherson family is not only grieving, they've now been traumatized to know that some of Jared McPherson's remains were still at the crash site.
The family has little hope of an immediate resolution.
"I don't know, they won't return my phone calls," Mike McPherson said.
"I just hope no one else has to ever feel what we felt or see what we saw," Karissa McPherson said.
The McPhersons have hired a lawyer and may pursue civil action against the coroner's office.
"When they take down that tape, it's their job to take care of the site and they did not do their job," Mike McPherson said.