NEW ORLEANS —

An appellate court has quintupled damages awarded to a New Orleans family who accused the Orleans Parish Coroner's Office of not identifying their loved one in a timely manner.

WDSU Investigates reported on the death of Benjamin Pfantz back in May. Advertisement

Pfantz's parents alleged in a lawsuit that although his body was sent to the morgue, staff denied that his body was there.

For eight months, his parents searched. After a call from his mother, it was revealed by an employee that they did have his body.

WDSU learned Pfantz had been cremated without the family's knowledge.

In the Pfantz case, Judge Kern Reese noted that NOPD "obtained fingerprints and provided the coroner with Benjamin’s date of birth, state ID number, but misspelled his last name, Pfantz, as Pea

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