A family in Alabama had to learn on their own that their daughter/sister died on Nov. 14 in Butler County.
Although emergency contact information for Hailey Jean Parker reportedly was available at such places as Poplar Bluff Regional Medical Center and the Butler County Justice Center, her sister and mother say they never were contacted by then Butler County Coroner Andy Moore after her death.
Family members only learned of Parker’s death when they reached out to the Butler County Sheriff’s Department, seeking any information they could about Parker. Text and voice messages left by the Daily American Republic for Moore on his personal cell phone seeking comment were not returned by press time.
Parker’s family is one of several who have called Coroner Jim Akers since he took office Jan. 1. They have raised issues they had with Moore in recent weeks and months.
“I have received phone calls from families with family members they cannot proceed with funeral services (or are) waiting on cremation authorizations or death certificates to be signed,” said Akers, who indicated some families are waiting for death certificates, so they can collect life insurance policies.
Akers said he has received calls daily from people who “tell me they can’t reach the prior officeholder and have been trying, some of them for six to eight weeks.”
Death notification delayed
Parker’s family reportedly has been waiting on a toxicology report to learn how the 33-year-old died.
Parker’s mother, Rose Scott, reached out to the newspaper’s Facebook page to share her daughter’s story.
Although her daughter died Nov. 14, Scott said, she did not find out until a month later on Dec. 14 when her “oldest daughter contacted the police (in Butler County) because we had not heard from her since Nov. 7th.”
Parker’s family, Scott said, learned she died at a friend’s residence.
In the three months prior to her death, Parker had been living in Alabama, her sister, Jennifer Parker, wrote in an email to the DAR.
Hailey Parker’s family had been “trying to get her setup with her disability, but it was (taking) longer than expected due to COVID,” Jennifer Parker said.
Due to her sister’s diabetes and other health issues, Jennifer Parker said, “it was decided she would travel back to Springfield, Missouri, where they had a clinic that would help her with her medication while waiting on her appointment for disability …”
Hailey Parker’s intentions reportedly were to return to Alabama by Christmas.
Jennifer Parker said her sister left on Nov. 6, and their mother last spoke to her on Nov. 7.
Family members later learned Hailey Parker had returned to Poplar Bluff, and Jennifer Parker reached out to Butler County authorities.
Jennifer Parker said she was contacted by Investigator Randle Huddleston, who shared “heartbreaking news, my sister, in fact, passed away on Nov. 14th. … I was just shattered and heartbroken.”
Huddleston, Jennifer Parker said, answered all her questions, which ended with her “having to make contact with Coroner Andy Moore.”
Jennifer Parker said she called Moore multiple times before making contact.
“I asked him, did he have my sister … his reply (was) yes; he didn’t really show sympathy,” she said. “He said, as a matter of fact I had just decided I need to do something with her.”
Moore, Jennifer Parker said, told her he had contacted a funeral home to handle the cremations and burial of the ashes.
“I asked him a few questions, which he didn’t seem like he was interested in … or (wanted) to be bothered with any of it,” Jennifer Parker said.
Moore, she said, never offered to “meet up with us or if he had any of her belongings.”
Reports, according to Scott, listed Hailey Parker as originally being from Alabama, “yet the coroner, Mr. Moore, made no attempt at locating any of her family.”
“Most of the people she knew, knew she had family in Alabama; the hospital in Poplar Bluff knew how to reach my mom,” said Jennifer Parker, who indicated her sister’s Facebook page stated she was from Tuscumbia, Alabama.
“I feel (Moore) didn’t do his job; he didn’t take the time and try to find her family,” Jennifer Parker said. “ … So, for 30 days her family knew nothing. No family should ever have to go through what we have been through.
“Andy Moore took an oath; he did not keep that promise.”
Scott admits her daughter “didn’t live the best lifestyle, but she was loved and she was a mother to a 15-year-old daughter.
“This has been difficult for us to know she laid in a freezer for a month.”
When Scott came to Poplar Bluff, she said, she had to make arrangements to have her daughter cremated “because it had been so long since she passed. I couldn’t bring my child home.”
No family, Scott said, deserves to find out about a family member’s death in the manner she did.
“My daughter was still a person that (did not) deserve to be treated this way,” Scott said. “If we had not called, we may not of ever knew what happened.”
In notifying a person’s next of kin, Akers said, there are several places a coroner can look for that information, including hospitals, jails and state agencies.
Those, he said, are “all pretty common places you check for next of kin. … You can check through a system called MIAC (Missouri Information Analysis Center). That will provide a lot of details to you.”
Other families face problems
The Parker family is not the only family who has reached out to Akers about issues they were having with Moore.
“I’ve been contacted (by) a funeral home in Arkansas,” Akers said. “It’s been 28 days (as of Jan. 6) since the person passed, and they have been trying to get a cremation authorization or a death certificate so they can perform the services.
“They have not been able to get in contact or returned call from the prior coroner.”
Another mother in Mexico is awaiting the return of her son, who died here in Butler County on Dec. 18, Akers said.
“The family cannot get his body back until the death certificate is signed, and he is sitting in Michigan awaiting a signature,” explained Akers.
The young man’s body, according to Akers, was sent from here to a transport company in St. Louis because interstate travel is involved.
Akers said the transport company utilizes a Michigan funeral home for its interstate transports.
After he took office, Akers said, he was notified by the State Coroner’s Association, asking if he could help the man’s mother.
Paperwork missing
Akers said he is unable to sign the man’s death certificate because he doesn’t have any files to review regarding his death.
“I have no paper files for ‘18, ‘19 or ‘20, and under Missouri statutes, all coroner’s reports are to be reduced to paper, which means we should have a file,” Akers said.
If the files exist, Akers said, they have not been turned over to him.
“This is what I walked into, people calling,” said Akers. “I’m trying to help without records and information” to give the families.
“Honestly, it was his term and his job, and these are things I should let him complete,” Akers said.
Family waits for needed life insurance
After her stepdaughter’s mother was murdered in Poplar Bluff in September, Jennifer Ladyman of Doniphan said, her stepdaughter tried repeatedly to contact Moore, as did representatives of McSpadden Funeral Home in Van Buren.
“He wouldn’t even answer their calls,” Ladyman said.
Ladyman’s stepdaughter, she said, was seeking the coroner’s report, so her mother’s insurance company could pay out her life insurance policy.
“We finally got a phone number for him in December … his personal cell phone,” explained Ladyman, who indicated both her stepdaughter and the life insurance company attempted to contact Moore.
Moore, according to Ladyman, told her stepdaughter he couldn’t give a copy of the coroner’s report to the life insurance company.
Moore, Ladyman said, indicated it had to be given to the stepdaughter’s grandmother even though Ladyman’s stepdaughter was the beneficiary of the policy.
The life insurance company “can’t pay the funeral bill until it gets the coroner’s report showing she was murdered” and that the death wasn’t a suicide.
“Right now, my stepdaughter’s husband is paying her mother’s bill because (the stepdaughter) can’t pay the bills until the money comes in,” Ladyman said.
This is a developing story and additional information will be reported as it becomes available.