In this Friday, June 23, 2017 photo, Frank Kerrigan holds onto a a funeral card for his son Frank, near Wildomar, Calif. Kerrigan, who thought his son had died, learned he buried the wrong man. Kerrigan... (Associated Press) 
 
 SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Eleven days after laying his son to rest, Frank J. Kerrigan got a call from a friend. 
 
 "Your son is alive," he said. 
 
 "Bill (Shinker) put my son on the phone," Kerrigan said. "He said 'Hi Dad.' " 
 
 Orange County coroner's officials had misidentified the body, the Orange County Register reported Friday (http://bit.ly/2tZSyZj). 
 
 The mix-up began on May 6 when a man was found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley. 
 
 Kerrigan, 82, of Wildomar, said he called the coroner's office and was told the body was that of his son, Frank M. Kerrigan, 57, who is mentally ill and had been living on the street. 
 
 When he asked whether he should identify the body, a woman said — apparently incorrectly — that identification had been made through fingerprints. 
 
 "When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them," Kerrigan said. "If he wasn't identified by fingerprints I would been there in heartbeat." 
 
 Frank's sister, 56-year-old Carole Meikle of Silverado, went to the spot where he died to leave a photo of him, a candle, flowers and rosary beads. 
 
 "It was a very difficult situation for me to stand at a pretty disturbing scene. There was blood and dirty blankets," she said. 
 
 On May 12, the family held a $20,000 funeral that drew about 50 people from as far away as Las Vegas and Washington state. Frank's brother, John Kerrigan, gave the eulogy. 
 
 "We thought we were burying our brother," Meikle said. "Someone else had a beautiful sendoff. It's horrific." 
 
 The body was interred at a cemetery in Orange about 150 feet from where Kerrigan's wife is buried. 
 
 Earlier, in the funeral home, the grieving Kerrigan had looked at the man in the casket and touched his hair, convinced he was looking at his son for the last time. "I didn't know what my dead son was going to look like," he said. 
 
 Then came the May 23 phone call from Shinker. Kerrigan's son was standing on the patio. 
 
 It was unclear how coroner's officials misidentified the body. 
 
 Doug Easton, an attorney hired by Kerrigan, said coroner's officials apparently weren't able to match the corpse's fingerprints through a law enforcement database and instead identified Kerrigan by using an old driver's license photo. 
 
 When the family told authorities he was alive, they tried the fingerprints again and on June 1 learned they matched someone else, Meikle said. 
 
 Easton said the coroner's office provided the Kerrigan family with a name of that person, but the identification hasn't been independently confirmed. The attorney said the family plans to sue, alleging authorities didn't properly try to identify the body as Kerrigan's son because he is homeless. 
 
 Sheriff's Lt. Lane Lagaret, a spokesman for the coroner's office, declined to comment to the Register because an investigation was underway. 
 
 The mistaken death identification led the federal government to stop disability payments for her brother, Meikle said. The family is working to restore them. 
 
 Meikle said her brother chose to return to living on the street and doesn't understand how hard the mistake was on his family. 
 
 "We lived through our worst fear," she said. "He was dead on the sidewalk. We buried him. Those feelings don't go away." ||||| “Your son is alive.” 
 
 Frank J. Kerrigan, 82, couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It was May 23, at night, and he clutched the phone at his home in Wildomar. 
 
 On the line was Bill Shinker, a long-time family friend. Shinker also had been a pall bearer, just 11 days earlier, at the funeral of Kerrigan’s son, Frank M. Kerrigan. 
 
 Frank Kerrigan holds onto a a funeral card for his son Frank. In May the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claimed his son Frank had died and was buried. (Photo by Andrew Foulk, Contributing Photographer) 
 
 Frank Kerrigan, looks at a pond near his Wildomar home. In May the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claimed his son Frank had died and was buried. (Photo by Andrew Foulk, Contributing Photographer) 
 
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 Frank M. Kerrigan with his father Frank Kerrigan. The family is taking action against the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claiming negligence after finding out that they buried whom they thought was Frank M. Kerrigan, but found out days later that he was still alive. (Photo courtesy of the Kerrigan family) 
 
 Frank Kerrigan is reflected in a photograph of his three children John, Carole and Frank. In May the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claimed his son Frank had died and was buried. (Photo by Andrew Foulk, Contributing Photographer) 
 
 A memorial that was set up at the site of where Frank M. Kerrigan supposedly passed away. Kerrigan’s family is taking action against the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claiming negligence after finding out that they buried whom they thought was Frank M. Kerrigan, but found out days later that he was still alive. (Photo courtesy of the Kerrigan family) 
 
 
 
 The gravesite in Orange, where Frank M. Kerrigan was supposedly buried. The family is taking action against the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner's Office claiming negligence after finding out that they buried whom they thought was Frank M. Kerrigan, but found out days later that he was still alive. (Photo courtesy of the Kerrigan family) 
 
 Frank M. Kerrigan’s family is taking action against the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claiming negligence after finding out that they buried whom they thought was Frank M. Kerrigan, but found out days later that he was still alive. (Photo courtesy of the Kerrigan family) 
 
 Frank Kerrigan holds a photograph of his three children John, Carole and Frank. In May the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claimed his son Frank had died and was buried. (Photo by Andrew Foulk, Contributing Photographer) 
 
 The Death Certificate of Frank M. Kerrigan issued by Orange County. The family filed suit against the Orange County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office claiming negligence after finding out that they buried whom they thought was Frank M. Kerrigan, but found out days later that he was still alive. SS# has been blurred for security purposes. (Photo by Andrew Foulk, Contributing Photographer) 
 
 Only now it seemed that the younger Frank, who was standing on the patio of Shinker’s former home in Stanton, had risen from the grave. 
 
 “Bill put my son on the phone,” Kerrigan recalled. “He said ‘Hi Dad’.” 
 
 It was all part of a bigger mix-up that involved a man found dead in Fountain Valley, a lack of fingerprint records and a mistaken photo I.D. 
 
 The mix-up has bewildered the elder Kerrigan, who blames the Orange County Coroner’s Office for the confusion. 
 
 And it’s raised a question: 
 
 Since younger Frank is alive, who is buried in his grave? 
 
 THE BEGINNING 
 
 The ordeal began May 6, when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department told the older Kerrigan to contact the Orange County Coroner. He placed that call and soon was told that his son, who is 57, suffers from mental illness and is homeless, had been found dead behind a Verizon store in Fountain Valley. 
 
 Kerrigan says he asked if he should identify the body, but a woman at the coroner’s office told him that would be unnecessary since the man had already been identified through fingerprints. However, Kerrigan later learned that apparently wasn’t the case. 
 
 “When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them,” he said. 
 
 “If he wasn’t identified by fingerprints I would’ve been there in heartbeat.” 
 
 Meanwhile, Frank’s sister, 56-year-old Carole Meikle, of Silverado, also learned that her brother had died. She rushed to the Verizon store and was directed to a spot near some bushes where his body was reported to have been found. 
 
 Coroner officials had told them that the younger Frank had died peacefully, but that didn’t match up with what Meikle saw. “It was a very difficult situation for me to stand at a pretty disturbing scene. There was blood and dirty blankets.” 
 
 Meikle left a photo of Frank, a candle, flowers and rosary beads at the spot. She hoped to honor her brother. 
 
 Later, at Chapman Funeral Home, the elder Kerrigan briefly had the casket opened so that he could take a last look at his son. But Kerrigan was so overcome by grief that he believed he was looking at the younger Frank. 
 
 “I took a little look and touched his hair,” Kerrigan recalled. “I didn’t know what my dead son was going to look like.” 
 
 Still, all along there were red flags that the dead man wasn’t Frank. 
 
 MISTAKEN ID 
 
 Kerrigan said when he received Frank’s personal belongings from the Coroner’s Office they were in a blue bag instead of the black attache case he always carried. A wallet containing no identification was in the bag, but a watch that was one of the younger Frank’s prized possessions, along with a favorite writing pen, were missing. 
 
 They held a $20,000 funeral May 12, at Holy Family Catholic Cathedral in Orange. Frank’s brother, John Kerrigan, gave the eulogy, and about 50 people came from as far as Las Vegas and Washington State. 
 
 “It was a beautiful ceremony,” Kerrigan said. 
 
 After the services, the body was interred at the Cemetery of the Holy Sepulchre in Orange. That’s 150 feet from the spot where Kerrigan’s late wife, Catherine Kerrigan, is buried. 
 
 Exactly how the Coroner’s Office misidentified Frank isn’t clear. 
 
 Someone apparently told authorities that the person found outside of the Verizon store looked like the younger Frank, who coincidentally grew up about two blocks from where the body was found. 
 
 Doug Easton, a Costa Mesa attorney hired by Kerrigan, said coroner officials told him they ran the fingerprints of the dead man through a law enforcement database but didn’t get a match. They then apparently used an old photo from Frank’s driver’s license, compared it to the body, and made visual identification, he said. 
 
 Meikle added that when her family told county officials that the younger Frank was alive, they were told that authorities had re-entered the man’s fingerprints into the database, on June 1, and learned they matched someone else. 
 
 LAWSUIT COMING? 
 
 The Kerrigan family has been given the man’s name from the Coroner’s Office, but that identification has not been independently confirmed, said Easton, who plans to file a notice of claim next week against Orange County as a precursor to a lawsuit. 
 
 The lawsuit will argue that Frank’s civil rights were violated because the Coroner’s Office did not make adequate efforts to determine if the body was in fact his because he is homeless. 
 
 On Saturday, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, which includes the Coroner’s Office, released a statement saying they are conducting an investigation. “The department extends regrets to the family of Frank M. Kerrigan, 57, for any emotional stress caused as a result of this unfortunate incident,” it said. “As part of the internal investigation, this incident and all identification policies and procedures will be reviewed to ensure no further misidentifications occur.” 
 
 Meanwhile, a stranger remains buried in the plot that was supposed to be Frank’s final resting place. 
 
 “We thought we were burying our brother,” said Meikle. “Someone else had a beautiful send-off. It’s horrific.” 
 
 She also said Social Security and other federal agencies believe the younger Frank is dead, and are withholding disability payments. The family is working to fix that. 
 
 Meanwhile, Meikle said she is thrilled Frank — who has returned to living on the street, declining offers of shelter — is alive. Still, she can’t shake the trauma. 
 
 “We lived through our worst fear,” she said, adding that her brother does not grasp the magnitude of the incident. 
 
 “He was dead on the sidewalk. We buried him. Those feelings don’t go away.”
– Eleven days after laying his son to rest, Frank Kerrigan got a call from a friend, the AP reports. "Your son is alive," he said. According to the Orange County Register, Orange County coroner's officials in California had misidentified the body. The mix-up began on May 6 when a man was found dead behind a Verizon store. Kerrigan, 82, said he called the coroner's office and was told the body was that of his 57-year-old son, also named Frank Kerrigan, who is mentally ill and had been living on the street. When he asked whether he should identify the body, a woman said—apparently incorrectly—that identification had been made through fingerprints. "When somebody tells me my son is dead, when they have fingerprints, I believe them," Kerrigan said. On May 12, the family held a $20,000 funeral that drew about 50 people, and the body was buried 150 feet from where Kerrigan's wife is buried. "Someone else had a beautiful sendoff," one family member said. "It's horrific." Then came the May 23 phone call from a friend; Kerrigan's son was standing on his patio. It's unclear how coroner's officials misidentified the body. An attorney for the family said the coroner's office apparently used an old driver's license photo when identifying the body as the younger Frank Kerrigan. The family plans to sue.