FedEx apologized in a now-deleted Twitter post where the company shared its condolences with the family and also for the tragic incident where the human body was lost by them some 3 years ago when it was being transported by a medical examiner to the family. However, soon the tweet was deleted and FedEx again apologized for making an error in response.
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FedEx accidentally apologized on Twitter for losing a human corpse some 3 years ago.
Back in 2019, the partially decomposed body of Jeffrey Merriweather was found underneath an inflatable mattress behind a house in southwest Atlanta, Georgia.
Apparently, the medical examiner wanted to send the dead body for extra testing, mostly because they wanted to learn how the body decomposed so quickly.
Only a few weeks earlier, 32-year-old Merriweather had been seen alive during a shooting in East Point, yet here his body was, nearly decomposed to the point that it was a skeleton. The family says that following the shooting, he did not contact them to let them know he was ok, nor talk to his daughters.
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The office then decided to send the body to a St. Louis lab via FedEx for $32.61, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.
But a tragedy struck and the body was lost and now 3 years later, there is still no trace of it. From a legal point of view, the body should have never been sent through FedEx, as the U.S. Postal Service is the only postal service allowed to transport human remains. The family has been left with a mystery as to what happened, which in the absence of a body will likely never be answered.
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Though it seems like the family may get some answers soon from the FedEx official Twitter account. When the Atlanta Journal-Constitution tweeted out an article about the case late last week, a helpful social media manager – perhaps unfamiliar with the case – replied:
“I am truly sorry you went through this experience. Please send a direct message so I can continue assisting you. -Gaby.”
The tweet – which was not automated – was deleted soon afterward, but not before people had widely-shared screenshots in disbelief.
One viral tweet shows the message having been translated into Jar Jar Binks, reading "mesa truly sorry yousa went through dis experience. Please senden a direct message so mesa can continue assisten yousa."
As the deleted post viral, FedEx apologized for the mistake and reiterated to Motherboard that the body should not have been sent in this manner.
“We removed several company responses to this tweet that were made in error. We apologize for the mistake and are committed to preventing this type of issue from occurring again," they told Motherboard. "Our thoughts and concerns continue to be with the family of Mr. Merriweather. We request that further questions be directed to the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office. Shipments of this nature are prohibited within the FedEx network.”
A response message from FedEx remains undeleted.