An Alpharetta woman is upset she learned her son had died in a car accident in Clayton County when police contacted her via Facebook.
Anna Lamb-Creasey told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution she had no idea Clayton police investigators were trying to reach her to tell her that her 30-year-old son, Ricky Lamb, had died when he was hit by a car while trying to cross Tara Boulevard around 11 p.m Jan. 24.
Investigators sent a message that went to a box labeled “other” in her Facebook message folder, she said. When she did find it, weeks after it was sent, Lamb-Creasey didn’t think it was a legitimate message because it was from a “Misty Hancock” and contained a photo of Atlanta rapper T.I.
“I had no idea who that was, and I certainly didn’t think it was from any police department,” Lamb-Creasey said.
Her daughter got the message, too, and finally opened it — 20 days after Ricky Lamb was killed.
“At the end of the day, Facebook helped me find my son, but police could have done a better job of finding me,” the tearful mother said. At the time of her son’s death, Lamb-Creasey said, she was moving from Suwanee to Alpharetta, but she still worked at the same place. “They could have checked with my job.”
Clayton County police spokesman Kevin Hughes said police tried “every way that we could to reach the family through conventional means, but we were unsuccessful. The young man didn’t have current identification to help us to reach his family.”
As for why police used the “Misty Hancock” profile when they reached out to Lamb-Creasey, Hughes said, “I don’t know why they did that. That (profile) is used by detectives when they’re doing investigations.”
He said Clayton police reached out to other police agencies in cities where they believed Lamb’s family lived, but weren’t able to find family members.
Despite this incident, Hughes said, the Clayton County Police Department plans to make more use of social media to reach people.
“Facebook is a tool that can definitely help police,” he said.
Clayton police Chief Greg Porter has spoken with Lamb-Creasey to apologize for the Facebook incident, Hughes said.
But Lamb-Creasey said she still has unanswered questions as she prepares to hold services Saturday for her son, who was father to three young children.
“I don’t even have a police report yet,” she said. “It should not have taken 20 days for them to reach me.”
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