Police say the spelling mistake was discovered after Tara was declared missing.
“Generally, people who do not have government IDs when interacting with the police are asked to provide a spelling of their name, and thus it is entered into the system when other documentation is not available for clarification,” the email reads.
According to the RCMP, this initial name, provided by an “assisting law enforcement agency”, then became the main name in the archives of its criminal record.
A spokeswoman for the Alberta Attorney General, meanwhile, told CBC News in an email that the Office of the Chief Medical Officer could not speak on individual cases due to privacy laws. The spokesman also said that contact with close relatives of a deceased person usually takes place “within hours”.
However, in a “small number” of cases, it may take longer.
“Unfortunately, it is sometimes not always possible to find family members in a timely manner, especially if the deceased does not have an identity document, has a family expropriation, names have changed or the family lives in other jurisdictions in Canada or internationally,” the email said.
When the body remains unidentified or close relatives cannot be found, a local funeral home is located to arrange the funeral.
Unidentified bodies are never cremated, the email said, “in the event that new information emerges about who they may have been and who their relatives may be.”
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