Weeks Ago, Hints of Tragic Identity Mix-Up

Authorities missed more than one opportunity to avoid mixing up the identities of a van crash survivor and a schoolmate who died in the crash -- or at least to correct the mix-up sooner.

A deputy coroner had talked a sister of 19-year-old Whitney Cerak out of seeing the body then believed to be Cerak’s, the coroner who misidentified 22-year-old Laura VanRyn’s body said Friday.

And VanRyn’s boyfriend and a roommate had raised doubts about the identity of the recuperating woman whose hospital bedside they attended.

The misidentification went undiscovered for five weeks after the Indiana collision April 26.

Grant County Coroner Ron Mowery said Cerak’s sister had been “extremely traumatized” and could not stand without help after she was told that Cerak had died at a hospital in Marion, Ind., northeast of Indianapolis. The deputy coroner’s advice was “out of concern for how she would handle the shock” of seeing her sister’s body, Mowery said.

In fact, Cerak was alive, and VanRyn died in the collision between a van and a tractor-trailer. On Tuesday, dental records conclusively identified the woman recuperating at a Michigan hospital as Cerak, not VanRyn.

In that span, VanRyn’s family kept a vigil at the bedside of the woman now known to be Cerak, a complete stranger. Cerak’s parents, meanwhile, buried the woman they thought was their daughter -- actually VanRyn -- in a closed-casket funeral without ever seeing the body within.

But indications of a mix-up came sooner.

Eugene B. Habecker, president of Taylor University in Upland, Ind., where both women were students, said Friday that on May 18, VanRyn’s roommate shared with school staffers her suspicions that the seriously injured young woman was not actually VanRyn. Habecker said the school then launched a “discreet fact-finding effort” and asked prosecutors for accident reports.

Habecker said he thought the school responded in a “prudent and responsible” way to the roommate’s concerns. The misidentification was not exposed until 12 days later at the Michigan hospital to which Cerak had been moved.

“We had a responsibility to address her concerns, and we believe we did. We took her very seriously,” Habecker said. “We’re a Christian university -- we don’t profess expertise in forensics. We don’t profess expertise in law enforcement.”

A message seeking comment was left Friday with the office of Grant County Prosecutor James Luttrull Jr.

Cerak, who bore a resemblance to VanRyn, was in a coma until this week and suffered a swollen face and broken bones, cuts and bruises, and brain injuries in the crash.

VanRyn’s parents did not begin to question whether the woman they were caring for was actually their daughter until, as she regained consciousness, she started saying things that made no sense to them.

VanRyn’s family received permission Friday to exhume the body buried as Cerak’s. It was apparently VanRyn’s body that was buried April 30 in Fairview Cemetery in Gaylord, Mich. DNA tests and dental comparisons reportedly will be made to ensure the body’s identity.

Cerak is from Gaylord; VanRyn’s family lives in Caledonia, Mich., about 150 miles to the south.