MEMPHIS, Tenn. — A mother says she called several area hospitals looking for her 37-year-old son before learning he had been hit and killed by a driver in Raleigh.
Terrance Parker’s mother said she hasn’t been able to see his body and was never notified when it was taken to the medical examiner’s office.
“I said all I wanna do is see my son,” Vicki Dodson said. “That’s it and they wouldn’t let me see him.”
Dodson who said her son was hit by a car Friday in Raleigh.
Terrance’s cousin said she was with him when the two were walking to the store. She said he was in a crosswalk here at the intersection of Covington Pike and Yale Road when a speeding driver blew through one of the lights, slamming into another car that hit Terrance.
“I saw my son laying in the street and they was pumping on his chest,” Dodson said.
She said investigators told her he was going to be airlifted to Regional One. So, she headed to Regional One Hospital. After waiting and waiting, she was told her son wasn’t at the hospital.
Then, she called Baptist East, but was told: “They weren’t accepting nobody, they wasn’t accepting nobody,” Dodson said. “We tried Methodist North, Methodist South, Germantown, we tried all the hospitals. Nobody had Terrance Parker.”
Hours later, she gets a call from a detective to meet him at police precinct. She said he then delivered the news her son did not make it.
Terrance had been taken to Baptist East. However, Dodson had already called Baptist East, and she was told Terrance was not there.
She went back to Baptist East, but when she arrived, she said his body had already been removed from the hospital. That only left her with more questions.
“So why would they transfer him from the hospital straight to the examiner? I said, ‘was he even seen?'” Dodson said.
We reached out to police for information on the case. The narrative they gave us shows a pedestrian was struck by a vehicle at Covington Pike and Yale Road and was transported to Baptist East in critical condition, but later died.
While the narrative says the crash happened Saturday night, instead of Friday night like his mother tells us, the victim listed is Terrance Parker.
Parker had also lost his own 6-year-old son in a car accident two year ago. It’s a loss the family is still trying to reconcile.
“For me not to have the answer about why they’re giving me the runaround about my son, I don’t understand,” Dodson said.
Mrs. Dodson said she hasn’t been notified when she will be able to see her son’s body.
We reached out to Baptist, Memphis Police about what is the protocol for releasing victim’s bodies to the examiner’s office.
Ben Figura, director of the West Tennessee Regional Forensic Center, confirmed that the WTRFC did take jurisdiction of his body because it fell into their jurisdiction as a motor vehicle accident.
He said the WTRFC completes all examinations within 72 hours of taking custody of the individual.
“We do not perform decedent viewings at our facility. Formal identification of a decedent is made via fingerprints, dental comparison, or other similar modalities. Decedent viewings are best performed in a funeral home setting with trained staff to better serve the families of the deceased,” Figura said.
