Three years ago, the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s office sent the remains of Jeffrey Merriweather to St. Louis for testing, but they never reached their destination.
The medical examiner sent Merriweather’s remains via FedEx though they prohibit sending human remains.
What’s even more puzzling is the mystery of how Merriweather’s body came to be nothing more than skeletal remains less than two weeks after he was seen alive. His remains had been sent to St Louis in hopes of an answer.
Merriweather, 32, was reported missing in June 2019. His body was discovered ten days later under an air mattress behind a house in southwest Atlanta. Court documents suggest that he’d been shot to death in a drug deal gone wrong.
What perplexed the medical examiner was that Merriweather’s body only weighed 34 lbs when it was discovered in a state of decomposition that normally takes more than a month to several years to occur, according to Explore Forensics.
Merriweather had long dreadlocks and several tattoos, but his mother didn’t recognize anything in the autopsy photos as his.
The Merriweather family is still waiting for answers concerning their son’s death. Fulton County is the state’s largest medical examiner’s office, and their actions may have violated federal law.
Only the U.S. Postal Service is legally qualified to carry human remains, and even then it’s only done so under strict guidelines.
