Bahamas News

Restview Memorial Mortuary and Crematorium has fired assistant director Glenn Miller for improperly releasing information regarding the death of 16-year-old Jett Travolta.

The former Restview employee told the press that the young man’s body was in fact “in good condition,” and that the death certificate listed the cause of death as “seizure.”

In a statement issued by the funeral home and addressed to the Journal yesterday, the company stated that Mr. Campbell never viewed the body or the death certificate, and therefore could not make such statements.

“Mr. Campbell has no authority to issue statements on behalf of Restview,” the statement read.

According to the statement, Mr. Campbell apparently admitted that he did make unauthorized statements to the press when interviewed by Mr. McSweeney.

It was then that Restview immediately terminated him.

The statement also revealed that Mr. McSweeney took the medical certificate to the Coroner’s Court and waited for the Police to forward their report.

Afterwards Mr. McSweeny personally collected the Coroner’s Certificate.

According to the information in the funeral home statement, Mr. McSweeny was in fact the one to personally collect Travolta’s certified death certificate.

The death certificate, the coroner’s certificate and the medical certificate was hand-delivered by Mr. McSweeny to the Travolta family physician Dr. Mark Smith.

The statement also clarified that Mr. McSweeney, Dr. Smith and Mr. Russ Faber, a Travolta family representative went to the morgue at the Rand, along with CDU officers and collected the remains of Jett Travolta.

It was confirmed in the same statement that Travolta was in fact cremated on Monday and at no time did any other individual other than the aforementioned individuals view the body from the completion of the autopsy to cremation.

During the cremation, Mr. McSweeney was apparently asked to make a statement to the press regarding the death by the Travolta family attorney, Mr. Michael Ossi.

Mr. McSweeney issued the following statement in front of the funeral home: “Jett Travolta was pronounced dead on Friday, 2nd January 2009 at 12:14pm. On Monday the 5th January 2009 at 10:00am an autopsy was performed by medical examiners.

“The cause of death was seizure disorder. The body was brought to Restview. The family requested cremation. The body is being cremated now. May God bless the Travolta family. Thank you very much.”

The statement also clarified that the Restview staff had been briefed by Mr. McSweeney from the moment instructions were received from Ginn Resorts that all communications and correspondence regarding the matter was to be dealt by Mr. McSweeney alone, and that normal protocol regarding confidentiality was to be strictly obeyed.

Source: Bahama Journal