Thursday, December 22, 2005

PHILADELPHIA, Pennsylvania (AP) -- A city health official has apologized to the relatives of a woman whose body sat unidentified in the medical examiner's office for more than two years."It's something certainly the family is due," Health Commissioner Joanne Godley told The Philadelphia Inquirer.Godley said what happened to the remains of Unisha "Niecey" Jefferson, 38, was an "aberration" and that the city would conduct an extensive review to prevent similar mishaps in the future, the newspaper reported Saturday.Jefferson's sister, Katrina Johnson, 35, questioned the sincerity of the apology, which she said should have come from Mayor John Street."I don't feel like the apology is genuine," Johnson said. "Why did it take until (the story of what happened) was printed in the paper for an apology to be offered?"Jefferson vanished April 14, 2003. Police found the body that turned out to be hers in an abandoned factory five months later.The medical examiner's office was unable to identify the decomposed remains and failed to match the body with missing-person reports filed two weeks after Jefferson's disappearance.The body was identified Tuesday after news reports about a missing-persons conference highlighted the case.Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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