Crash victim ‘alive’ on paper five years after death

Time is running out for the family of a Kingston man who died in 2020 following a motor vehicle crash, as delays and missing documents threaten to bar them from pursuing civil remedies or even settling his estate.

Five years after Oshane Burton's death, his family says the pain has not faded; instead, it has hardened into anger, exhaustion and a sense of being trapped in an endless bureaucratic loop.

When THE STAR first reported on the family's ordeal in January 2021, the family was already reeling. Burton died in hospital in November 2020. According to Linford Harris, Burton's eldest brother, "he died in hospital with no scratches on his body, none whatsoever."

Yet when the remains were eventually released months later, the body was badly decomposed.

"What we received was a decomposed body, and nobody answers for that. Nobody is at fault. Nobody nuh feel the pain weh we feel fi that," Harris said.

He told THE STAR that his mother was robbed of one last chance to say goodbye to her son, as because of the state of his body, there was no viewing at the funeral.

"I had to listen to my mother screaming for months, every single morning, until we coulda get that body," Harris said.

"The only thing she asked me to do, as her eldest son, was 'Please, when you get the body, mi want go look pon mi son'. [But] she couldn't look pon her son, because when I went to identify the body, him nuh have no face."

The family was told the body was too decomposed to be identified and that DNA testing was required. Desperate, they paid for an independent autopsy, which was finally conducted in January 2021 after what Harris described as repeated resistance and "a lot of hoops."

What enrages him most, however, is that a burial order showed a government autopsy had already been done before identification. "So first breach that because a body should be identified before an autopsy is done," Harris said. The independent pathologist also questioned how officials could be certain they had examined the correct body.

"I was there the day he was born... I can identify him no matter what," Harris insisted. He recalled suggesting dental identification, only to be rebuffed, then later told Burton's had been identified by his teeth.

AFFAIRS REMAIN FROZEN

The family buried the body, but the ordeal did not end. There is no death certificate, and without it Burton's affairs remain frozen. His car, repaired by his father, sits unused in the driveway, a daily reminder of unfinished grief.

Efforts to obtain the death certificate have sent Harris between the hospital, the Registrar General's Department, Kingston Central Police Station and the Coroner's Court. He was told a particular form was needed, but was devastated to learn that the police case file could not be found.

"To be honest with you, is just anger and rage," Harris said of his feelings on the matter. "Mi literally can't get nowhere."

Conflicting autopsy reports only deepen the torment. The government pathologist reportedly ruled Burton's death as non-traumatic brain haemorrhage, while the independent pathologist concluded it was blunt force trauma consistent with the crash.

"My brother was never hypertensive and nobody can say with 100 per cent certainty that the body they tested was even my brother."

Attorney-at-law Peter Champagnie, contacted by THE STAR for comment, warned that the family could be "severely prejudiced" by time limits on civil claims. He urged immediate action, including approaching the Office of the Public Defender.

"What I suspect the certificate is needed for is, one, to pursue any civil claim arising out of the accident, and two, to deal with any property the deceased may have left. Without that document, the brother is going to be severely prejudiced," Champagnie said.

He said that time is of the essence in the matter.

"Generally, the statute of limitations is six years, but under the Fatal Accidents Act, some aspects have a much shorter time-frame. That's why this matter cannot be delayed."