MP backs family blocked from seeing dead son in their mortuary campaign
A Shropshire MP is backing a campaign by a local family that was denied access to their son’s body after he died in a tragic car crash last year.
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Joe Baker, who grew up in Purslow near Craven Arms, lost his life after the event took place in Somerset on 27th November 2023.
Joe was a 20-year-old Royal Navy aircraft engineer, who was enroute to the Royal Naval Air Station in Yeovilton when the devastating event took place. Following the tragic event, Joe's body was taken to a ‘closed mortuary’ in Taunton.
Family members were not given access until ten days later, when Joe was transferred to the undertakers.
Despite “desperate appeals and pleas” for access from Joe’s parents Rachel and her Adam Baker and their two liaison officers, they were refused access on the grounds that Musgrove Mortuary in Somerset was a closed mortuary.
“I begged to see my son. I wanted to know what injuries he had, how badly hurt he was,” Rachel said.
“All the time I was told ‘we can’t give you any information, it’s protocol, we’re a closed mortuary’.
