A Longview mother is suing the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office after being told months after burying her 2-month-old daughter that she was given the remains of a different baby.
The lawsuit, filed on June 26 in the Cowlitz County Superior Court names Vanessa Barker, the infant’s mother, as the plaintiff and the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office, along with several unnamed employees, as defendants.
It is the first legal action since The Daily News broke the story in January over the switch that affected two mothers.
Barker, who is represented by attorney Nicholas R. Major, based in Seattle, accuses the Cowlitz County Coroner’s Office of being negligent over the handling of her daughter Khalisee Crabill’s remains. The lawsuit also says the office acted recklessly, interfered in the baby’s burial, and caused severe emotional distress.
“Failing to give (the) Plaintiff the correct baby is so outrageous that it goes beyond all possible bounds of decency, is atrocious, and utterly intolerable in a civilized community,” the suit states.
In addition, Khalisee Crabill’s father, Robert Crabill, Jr., committed suicide on July 20, 2023, the anniversary of his daughter’s funeral, the lawsuit reports.
Major told The Daily News there was no discussion of a possible settlement before filing the lawsuit. As of Thursday afternoon, no court date has been scheduled.
Cowlitz County Coroner Dana Tucker declined to provide a comment on the lawsuit.
Tucker confirmed to The Daily News in January about the mistake, which she said occurred during the last year of former coroner Tim Davidson’s tenure, who lost reelection in 2022 to Tucker.
The mistake wasn’t discovered until Tucker had already taken office in January 2023. She said a person no longer working at the office failed to follow proper protocol.
The other mother, Chelsea R. Hurst, 31, of Cowlitz County, is not part of the lawsuit. She gave birth to a 3-pound girl about a month before Khalisee’s death.
Hurst said the coroner’s office confirmed in October that her baby’s remains were given to the wrong family. Her baby was alive for about 45 minutes after birth.
For some time, the remains of both infants were at the local morgue.
Hurst told The Daily News that she was informed the coroner’s office initially planned to send the remains of both babies to the same funeral home in Kelso, but only her child’s remains were sent.
Khalisee Crabill’s body remained at the local morgue for months, according to her grandmother, Maggie Waits of Longview.
The remains of Hurst’s infant was sent to Green Hills Memorial & Garden in Kelso, then buried, then exhumed and eventually cremated.
She said she didn’t receive the ashes of her baby nor a death certificate.
