Family's yearlong search for missing California woman ends with tragic discovery
Jessie Peterson, 31, was admitted to the Mercy San Juan Medical Center in April 2023 and died. Her family was led to believe she had checked out and gone missing for nearly a year, according to a new lawsuit.
A California family’s yearlong search for their daughter, who they were led to believe went missing after checking out from a hospital against medical advice, has ended with the tragic discovery that she had been dead and decomposing in the hospital morgue the entire time, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.
Jessie Peterson, 31, was admitted to the Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael, California, a suburb of Sacramento, in April 2023 after suffering a diabetic episode related to Type-1 diabetes that she was diagnosed with at 10 years old, states the negligence lawsuit filed in the Sacramento County Superior Court by her mother and sisters.
The hospital told Peterson’s family that she was discharged two days later against medical advice, according to the lawsuit.
Unable to locate Peterson, the 31-year-old’s family began a "relentless" search and reported her missing to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, the suit states.
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A year later, they learned that Peterson had never checked out from the hospital.
Detectives notified the family on April 12 that Peterson’s body was found at Mercy San Juan Medical Center, where her body had been stored in "an off-site warehouse morgue" and left to "decompose for over a year," according to the lawsuit.
"At this point, Jessie’s body was so decomposed that an open casket funeral was not feasible, and Jessie’s fingerprints were not even obtainable for any keepsake," the lawsuit states. Her body was also "so discolored that her tattoos could not be identified," according to the complaint.
Peterson’s death certificate, which was not completed until more than a year after her death, states that she died from cardiopulmonary arrest at 31 years old.
But with no notice of death for a year, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice was a factor in her death was impossible, the lawsuit states.
Peterson’s family is now seeking more than $5 million in damages.
Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan Medical Center, did not immediately respond to Fox Digital’s request for comment on the matter.
