An upstate New York family thought they laid their missing sister to rest years ago — cremating her remains and even mixing them with the ashes of their beloved mom.
But three years later, Shanita Hopkins and her family got shocking news: they’d grieved a stranger.
“We mixed my mom with this stranger,” Hopkins told told WROC 8 this week referring to her mothers ashes, which the family had put into necklaces.
In February 2024, Hopkins and her family were told the decomposed body of their missing sister, Shanice Crews, had been found in an empty Rochester lot.
The mother-of-two’s cause of death was a cocaine overdose, according to the autopsy report reviewed by the WROC 8, but Crews, 32, was not into drugs, her sister insisted.
“Reading the autopsy was traumatic…it’s one thing to hear it, you know what I’m saying, but then it’s another thing to actually read it, and then her name is attached to it. So we thinking, this is how she died. And then we’re trying to think, did somebody like lace her, or is she doing this on her [own]?” Hopkins, 36, recalled.
“Your mind just goes crazy,” she lamented.
Nobody in her family had been allowed to see the body because it was badly decomposed, prompting a swift cremation, Hopkins said.
The family held a memorial service and funeral for Crews in the summer, mingling what they thought were Crews’ ashes with those of their mom.
But things took an astounding turn in November, when Hopkins got a text from an unknown individual from Detroit.
“Her first message is ‘ma’am’ – with the picture of my sister – ‘ma’am, I’m concerned, your sister is not dead. She just volunteered at my event today.’ This is just a random message,” Hopkins said. “My initial reaction was like, ‘What the, what? What am I reading right now?’”
A startled Hopkins immediately contacted police, who pointed her to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office, where personnel insisted Crews’ dental records had been a match to the body.
Unconvinced, Hopkins showed them the text message and photo of Crews she’d received – prompting an investigation.
Crews’ younger sister – who shared the same mom and dad – and Crews’ son were brought in for DNA testing to see if they matched the person authorities had identified as Crews.
The results weren’t a match, Hopkins recalled.
Since then, the family has been experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions.
“That’s stuff we still have to relive…you can’t take back the moments where the cop came and told us Shanice Crews has been found dead on outside, like trash. You can’t take away them initial feelings, you know, like you can’t get that back. We can’t get them seven months back. We can’t get them tears back,” she told the outlet.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office told WROC 8 in a statement the department “uses industry standard scientific methods to identify remains of deceased individuals in a timely manner and make appropriate notifications to families,” but declined to comment on the allegations.
Crews’ family, still reeling from the shocking turn of events, are now seeking legal representation.
“After I came and told you that my sister was alive and for you to tell me that her dental records are identical to the dental records y’all are looking at is just a lie — like, you’re lying to my face,” she said.
“I almost feel like they just, they couldn’t find out who this was and they wanted to close a missing person’s case,’” Hopkins fumed, and added the medical examiner’s office has since retrieved the ashes her family was given.
The office told Crews’ family it would reimburse them for the money spent on the memorial and cremation, “but my family was like, ‘no, we need to get a lawyer…just for pain and suffering, because this is crazy,’” Hopkins explained.
They’ve yet to reunite with Crews, despite their attempts to track her down through Detroit authorities, according to Hopkins.
“We can’t force her to talk to us…but she’s alive and well,” Hopkins said.
“I love her…I don’t think I’m ever gonna get over the anger but I know how it feels – I’m sorry – I know how it feels to think that she was dead…I just want her to know that whatever we had going on, it doesn’t even matter. Like, I love her, that’s it. That’s all I would want her to know,” she said.
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