CLEVELAND, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A car was towed to an impound lot with the body of the driver inside because an officer failed to check the inside the vehicle, Cleveland police said Tuesday.
A lawyer for Emil Azzam's family told The Cleveland Plain-Dealer that an insurance adjuster found the body Sunday afternoon, two days after Azzam was killed in a one-car crash. John Lemieux said that the family is "outraged."
Azzam had been helping at a friend's restaurant Friday and was driving to a relative's house when he apparently skidded on a snow-slicked freeway. Police were also trying to deal with a three-car pileup nearby.
His family was told by a friend that he had been hurt in a crash but were then unable to find him at the hospital.
"It was like he vanished from Earth," a sister-in-law, Victoria Green, said. "We had been searching for him for two days."
Cleveland Safety Director Martin Flask said that police officers are supposed to check the interiors of cars before they are towed and do an inventory.
"It appears that didn't happen," Flask said.
The towing company said that the driver signed an inventory form.
