Police told family their dad died in crash — then he pulled into their Ohio driveway

An Ohio family was devastated after police gave them some difficult news: their father, 42-year-old Elder Ocampomejia, had been killed in a highway crash on Wednesday, media outlets reported.

Still in shock, Jasmin Ibarra and her mother began calling family members to tell them the tragic news, WXIX reported. And Ibarra was about to tell Ocampomejia’s 9-year-old son, her own half-brother, when a familiar face pulled into the driveway of their Cincinnati home.

“I just went outside running,” Ibarra told the outlet. “I needed to see if he was dead or not[...] and it was Elder. And I just opened the door and said, ‘You know you’re supposed to be dead,’ and he just looked shocked and was like, ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’”

Two hours earlier, Ohio State Highway Patrol told the family Ocampomejia was the sole fatality of an accident in which a semi-truck crashed into the back of a box truck, launching the driver of the latter out and killing him, WLWT reported. A passenger in the box truck was also severely injured.

Investigators said they made a mistake, though they didn’t explain what caused the confusion, according to WKRC. As of Friday, police were still trying to determine the identity of the man killed in the crash.

“I feel bad. It was a relief for us to know that he wasn’t dead, especially for me because we didn’t know how to explain that to my 9-year-old brother,” Ibarra told WKRC. “Like, we didn’t know what to say to him at all, but for the other family, it’s the worst news you can ever get.”

This story was originally published September 12, 2021 at 10:04 AM with the headline "Police told family their dad died in crash — then he pulled into their Ohio driveway."