Member-only story
Man’s Remains Still Missing 5 Years After Medical Examiner Shipped Them via FedEx
FedEx told Jeffrey Merriweather’s family that the package entered the Austell, Georgia, facility but that they lost track of it from there.
On June 22, 2019, a homeowner found a near-skeleton body behind an abandoned house on Pecan Drive in Atlanta, Georgia. The remains were that of 32-year-old Jeffrey Merriweather, whose family had reported him missing ten days earlier.
Jeffrey was last seen alive on the afternoon of June 12 during what authorities believe was a botched marijuana sale outside a McDonald’s on Virginia Avenue.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Jeffrey and Christian Darrell Thomas arrived at the location in a Cadillac Escalade, while Elisha Bahati and an unknown person came in a Toyota 4Runner.
A witness watched as Jeffrey exited his Escalade and entered the other car. After a few minutes, Christian walked over to the 4Runner and began shooting into the passenger side. There was an exchange of gunfire, and the 4Runner sped away with Jeffrey inside.
The AJC reported that an indictment accused Elisha of killing Jeffrey by “shooting him with a handgun” and Christian of repeatedly firing at Elisha as he drove away. Another man, Darion Yehman Turner, was blamed for helping Christian evade arrest.
Both investigators and the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office are unsure of what happened to Jeffrey between the time of the shooting and the discovery of his remains, which weighed only 34 pounds.
The medical examiner was baffled by how the man’s body was in such an advanced state of decomposition in less than two weeks. As a result, a lab in St. Louis, Missouri, was asked to conduct a deeper trauma analysis in hopes of determining the cause and manner of death.
On July 5, Jeffrey’s remains were placed in a 20”x16”x14” box and dropped off at a FedEx depot in Austell. It was to arrive 555 miles away at the St. Louis City Medical Examiner’s Office on July 9.
Six weeks later, on August 19, Jeffrey’s family was told the box was lost.
It’s unclear why the package was shipped via FedEx. Not only is it against their guidelines, but only the US…
