After the police reported that their sister had died of an overdose of drugs after she had gone missing, her corpse was cremated as soon as possible, and a funeral was performed. However, a “random stranger” reached out to them on Facebook with a post that completely altered the course of events.
The ashes of a New York family’s sister were combined with those of their mother to create memento necklaces. The family also had a funeral memorial service for their sister and cremated her body. After that, they discovered that the ashes in question belonged to a “stranger”… and the lady whom they had believed to be deceased may in fact still be alive.
That is the strange narrative that is being told by Shanita Hopkins, a resident of Rochester, who spoke up to WROC about the crisis that her family is going through. Hopkins was given the information that her sister Shanice Crews was seen in Detroit many months after the police reported that she had passed away.
Hopkins claims that her family filed a missing person report for Crews in July of 2021, after she had ceased interacting with them and had abandoned her two children who were left behind. Then, in April of 2024, the local police said that she had passed away in February of the same year from an overdose of drugs in an empty lot. An autopsy report that was conducted on her corpse revealed that she had high amounts of cocaine in her body.
Hopkins was taken aback by this information, and she started to question whether her sister had been drugged, implying that she did not use cocaine. Through an interview with WROC, Hopkins posed the question, “Did somebody like lace her?”
According to Hopkins, the corpse was burned as soon as it was discovered since it had undergone such a severe decomposition. This occurred before to the funeral and memorial ceremony that was conducted in May of 2024.
After a few months had passed, however, things changed for the family when Hopkins got a communication from an unknown person in Detroit which was completely unexpected.
“Ma’am, I’m concerned your sister is not de.ad,” said the letter, which was accompanied by a photograph of a lady who Hopkins claimed to be her sibling. “She just volunteered at my event today,” the message on to say. The first thing that Hopkins wanted to say in reaction to them was, “WTF.”
She told WROC that the message was “just a random message,” and then she went on to contact the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office and present them the photographs and text. She said that they emphasized that the dental documents were identical to one another.
Hopkins said that further DNA tests were performed on other members of the family, but they did not provide a match, which indicates that the remains were not Shanice’s since they were not a match. By informing the outlet, “they couldn’t find out who this was and they wanted to close a missing person’s case,” Hopkins said that she now feels the medical examiner was “lying to my face” regarding the dental records. She also stated that she believes the medical examiner was “lying to me.” That’s very much how I really feel.”
Hopkins said that the family constructed necklaces with part of the ashes from both the lady they believed to be Shanice and their deceased mother, stating, “we mixed my mom with this stranger.” This made the situation much more difficult. She said that the extra ashes were handed over to the medical examiner in response to their request.
There is a bright side to the scenario, despite the fact that it has been difficult for the family and that it has apparently caused them to consider legal possibilities for their “pain and suffering.”
“She’s just still a missing person to us, but she’s alive and well,” said Hopkins, who has not as of yet received a direct message from her sister.
When the Medical Examiner was contacted to comment on the occurrence, they responded by saying that they were “unable to comment on specific cases.” However, they insisted that they utilize “industry standard scientific methods” to identify the remains of de.ad persons in a timely way and to notify relatives in the right manner.