The body of a 24-year-old who died while travelling in Asia was repeatedly "lost" en route to the UK and turned up in a deteriorated state.
The family of Denver Barfield fought for more than a month to get him repatriated encountering everything from unhelpful government departments to sick hoaxers.
Denver, from Leicester, died in the early hours of May 16 after the motorbike he was riding crashed into a telegraph pole in Quang Nam province, Vietnam.
Fellow Brit and University of Leicester Masters student Beth Thompson, 24, was also killed in the crash.
The pair planned to travel on to Cambodia, Bali and Australia before Denver started a job in London.
But after the tragedy his family has faced a living nightmare.
They said they were given little support from the Foreign Office or British embassy and that for weeks his body had remained in the south east Asian country with few updates, Sky News reports.
Mum Debsy Clayton was pestered by a man posing by a coroner who demanded £10,000 to repatriate Denver and sent graphic images of the crash scene when she didn't pay. It turned out he was a hoaxer.
His sister Charley Clayton said British police had told her they didn't know where Denver's body was.
"The embassy in Vietnam later told us his body was in one place and was safe. But then my mum was then told this was not true, and they did not know where Denver's body was," she added.
The family eventually were charged £12,000 by a legitimate funeral director to fly Denver home but wanted to check the authenticity.
Charley said when she phoned the embassy the woman there told her to "ring back tomorrow" because her shift had just ended.
On May 27 Denver's body was put on a flight which was supposed to be direct but it stopped over for nine hours in Istanbul and even when it did eventually land it took another two days to reach the funeral home.
In that time mum Debsy had phoned the hospital and been told they had no idea where Denver's body was.
Denver's body was eventually put on a flight on 27 May.
His sister said the family were told this would be direct, but instead, the passenger plane had a nine-hour layover in Istanbul.
On 28 May, Debsy Clayton rang the local hospital, where they were told Denver's body would be brought, and was told they had no idea where he was.
Charley said: "How can you lose a body? It's not like it's a piece of hand luggage."
Debsy, who was "hysterical" by this point phoned the police only to be told it wasn't a matter for them and that she should "pull herself together", Charley said.
When the funeral home did finally receive Denver's body there was no paperwork and was "badly discoloured" because it had not been embalmed.
Charley said the funeral directors told her they had "never seen anything like it", his clothes smelt of bodily fluids and faeces and the rug used by Vietnamese police to cover his body at the crash site was still with him - his designer trainers were not.
Denver's family is now awaiting the results of a post-mortem and subsequent inquest.
Leicestershire Police offered the family its condolences and apologised for an initial breakdown in communications but said a review found it had acted appropriately and the call handler "managed the call in a courteous and professional manner."
The Foreign Office said:: "Our staff are supporting the families of a British man and woman who died following a road traffic accident in Vietnam."
Charley said: "Denver had his whole life ahead of him - he had so many things he wanted to do."
She added it was only when she walked in to the room and saw his body that it hit her he was not coming home.
