In mix-up, blank death certificate cited

A part-time medical examiner, however, wrote the name Susan Anderson on a cremation release form, according to the funeral director handling arrangements.

A series of missteps and relaying of incorrect information had led the family of Susan Anderson, 38, to think she had died in an early-morning fire on Dec. 22. On Sunday, the family was shocked to learn that she was alive in Massachusetts General Hospital.

The family of 45-year-old Ann Arnold Goyette, meanwhile, first found out she might be dead when her brother and father went to the hospital Sunday and saw that the woman being treated was not Goyette.

Her relatives were officially told yesterday that she had died in the fire and that her remains were cremated without the family's permission. They met yesterday with Gloucester's mayor, police chief, and Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett. Goyette's sister and brother identified her from photos taken at the medical examiner's office, according to Goyette's sister-in-law, Cathie Hull.

By yesterday morning, two days after learning of the identity mix-up, the family had received no calls or apologies from the medical examiner's office, said Goyette's brother, Scott Arnold.

The office, under the direction of Dr. Richard J. Evans, is being investigated by federal officials over the alleged misuse of grant money. Mistakes at the medical examiner's office prompted a second inquiry by the state attorney general after the wrong set of eyes was sent out for examination during an inquest into the sudden death of an infant.

A spokesman for the Executive Office of Public Safety, which oversees the medical examiner's office, declined to comment yesterday on the identity mix-up and referred calls to Blodgett's office. Goyette's relatives said they were told that Blodgett's office is investigating potential criminal charges in the Dec. 22 fire and the misidentification of the remains.

A spokesman for Blodgett also declined to comment, citing the ongoing investigation.

Former employees of the state medical examiner's office said yesterday that their practice had been to keep remains until the office had positively and independently identified the deceased.

While the office released Goyette's remains without a name on the death certificate, it was unclear yesterday what identification errors were made after emergency personnel arrived at the Gloucester fire.

Paul Wingle, director of communications for the Massachusetts Hospital Association, said hospitals rely heavily on information provided by personnel at the scene.

Police in Gloucester said the mix-up was partly due to the sooty conditions of Goyette and Anderson after the fire, the use of an oxygen tent in Anderson's treatment at Mass. General, and erroneous information provided to emergency medical personnel by one of the two men who survived the fire.

Kevin Grondin -- the funeral home owner contacted by Anderson's former husband, Phillip J. Anderson, to handle arrangements -- said yesterday that there was no name on the death certificate when his employees went to pick up what they thought were Susan Anderson's remains at the medical examiner's office.

Friday morning, Phillip Anderson went to Pike-Grondin funeral home in Gloucester and signed documents authorizing the medical examiner's office to release his former wife's remains to the funeral home and allowing the cremation, Grondin said. Two staff members drove to the medical examiner's office in Boston that day.

There, Grondin said, they picked up two forms: a death certificate and an authorization by the office to cremate the body. Even though four days had passed since the fire, the death certificate listed no name for the victim, Grondin said yesterday.

Grondin said that when his staff members returned with the body, Dr. Abraham Phillip filled out and signed the cremation form, listing Susan Anderson as the deceased. But, Grondin said, Phillip, a part-time medical examiner, did not put Anderson's name on the death certificate. A telephone number for Phillip could not be found yesterday.

Anderson's relatives chose not to view the body before cremation, said Grondin, adding that the decision is common for families who prefer to remember their relatives alive. The remains were taken to Linwood Cemetery and Crematory in Haverhill and cremated Saturday.

"There was no reason at all not to proceed with cremation," Grondin said.

He said he was in his office the next day when he received an agitated call from someone in the medical examiner's office. "They said they wanted the body back," Grondin said. "I said, `That may not be possible.' "

Grondin hurriedly called a staff member at the Haverhill crematory at home. "I said, `Was Susan Anderson already cremated?' She said, `Yes,' " Grondin said. Yesterday, Anderson's family was shaken, but relieved she is alive.

"It's a big mess," said a relative who asked not to be identified. "This doesn't happen in real life, does it? I'm totally floored about it."

The fatal blaze began shortly before 5 a.m. on Dec. 22 at 163 Essex Ave. in Gloucester, where Anderson and Goyette were socializing with two men. Police said the group set off fireworks indoors, touching off a blaze in a Christmas tree. Gloucester Police Chief Michael M. McLeod has said that information provided by one of the men may have been the source of the mistaken identities.

The men escaped the fire, but both women were found in a back room of the house covered in soot. They were brought to Addison Gilbert Hospital, where one died as a result of smoke inhalation and carbon monoxide poisoning. The other was flown to Mass. General.

Goyette's brother, Scott Arnold, said that when he and his 80-year-old father, Robert, went to the hospital over the weekend, doctors quickly approached them, saying the woman being treated had said she was Susan Anderson. "We thought she might be delirious and that maybe our visit would jog her memory," he said. "But when we went in, we could see without the mask that it wasn't Ann."

The pair sat outside the hospital room, stunned.

"We just kind of collected our thoughts and thought about what was going on and what was taking place," Arnold said. "We were kind of hoping that something else had happened, that Ann maybe was still alive. But you can't live on probably. You have to know. You have to move ahead."