A family who cremated what they thought to be their "missing sister" and mixed her ashes with their mom's had a surprise when she turned up alive.
Shanita Hopkins and her family were convinced they had laid her missing sister, Shanice Crews, to rest.
They held a funeral, mourned her, even mixed what they believed were her ashes with those of their beloved mother - and wore the remains around their necks in keepsake necklaces.
“We mixed my mom with this stranger,” Hopkins told WROC 8, still stunned by the revelation.
The unimaginable journey began in February 2024, when the family received devastating news that the body of Crews had been found in a vacant lot in Rochester, badly decomposed.
An autopsy determined the cause of death was a cocaine overdose - a detail Hopkins couldn’t reconcile.
“Reading the autopsy was traumatic… it’s one thing to hear it, you know what I’m saying, but then it’s another thing to actually read it, and then her name is attached to it. So we thinking, this is how she died. And then we’re trying to think, did somebody like lace her, or is she doing this on her [own]?” Hopkins said.
“Your mind just goes crazy,” she added.
Due to the condition of the body, authorities said the family couldn’t view it, leading to a swift cremation.
The family held a memorial service that summer, unknowingly commemorating a stranger - and combining their mother’s ashes with what they believed were Shanice’s.
Then came the twist no one saw coming.
In November, Hopkins received a cryptic text from a complete stranger in Detroit.
“Her first message is ‘ma’am’ – with the picture of my sister – ‘ma’am, I’m concerned, your sister is not dead. She just volunteered at my event today.’ This is just a random message,” Hopkins recalled. “My initial reaction was like, ‘What the, what? What am I reading right now?’”
Shocked and confused, Hopkins contacted the police, who directed her to the Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office.
They stood by their identification of the body, insisting the dental records matched Shanice Crews, per the New York Post.
But Hopkins wasn’t buying it. She presented the text and photo she received to authorities, which sparked a new investigation.
Crews’ biological sister and her son were called in for DNA testing - and the results were shocking: no match.
Now the family is left grieving the grief itself.
“That’s stuff we still have to relive… you can’t take back the moments where the cop came and told us Shanice Crews has been found dead on outside, like trash.
"You can’t take away them initial feelings, you know, like you can’t get that back. We can’t get them seven months back. We can’t get them tears back,” Hopkins said.
The Monroe County Medical Examiner’s Office, in a statement to WROC 8, said the department “uses industry standard scientific methods to identify remains of deceased individuals in a timely manner and make appropriate notifications to families,” but declined to comment on the specifics of the case.
Meanwhile, Hopkins and her family are seeking legal representation, convinced there’s more to the story.
“After I came and told you that my sister was alive and for you to tell me that her dental records are identical to the dental records y’all are looking at is just a lie — like, you’re lying to my face,” Hopkins said.
“I almost feel like they just, they couldn’t find out who this was and they wanted to close a missing person’s case,” she speculated.
The medical examiner’s office has since retrieved the ashes and offered to reimburse the family for the memorial and cremation expenses. But for Hopkins, that offer fell painfully short.
“My family was like, ‘no, we need to get a lawyer… just for pain and suffering, because this is crazy,’” she said.
Despite their efforts, the family has yet to reconnect with Crews, who appears to be living in Detroit.
“We can’t force her to talk to us… but she’s alive and well,” Hopkins said.
“I love her… I don’t think I’m ever gonna get over the anger but I know how it feels – I’m sorry – I know how it feels to think that she was dead… I just want her to know that whatever we had going on, it doesn’t even matter. Like, I love her, that’s it. That’s all I would want her to know,” she said.