The family of Harry Dunn are holding a second funeral for the teenager after human remains were discovered by police on possessions of his they had kept for four and a half years.
Charlotte Charles, Dunn’s mother, said the discovery had left her “sick, angry and bewildered” and had retraumatised the family.
“I just can’t get my head around the fact that we’re having two cremations for the same loved one, it’s almost unheard of I’m sure,” she told Sky News.
Dunn, 19, died in August 2019 when his motorbike collided head-on with a car driven by Anne Sacoolas, a US citizen who was driving on the wrong side of the road, near RAF Croughton, an American intelligence base in Northamptonshire.
Sacoolas had diplomatic immunity asserted on her behalf by the US and was able to leave the UK 19 days after Dunn’s death, leading to a tireless campaign by his family to bring the case to court.
In December 2022, Sacoolas attended court remotely and was given an eight-month suspended sentence and disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Charles said: “After Harry died, we asked if we could have his motorbike, clothes and possessions back. It is a way for us to keep connected to our son and we wanted to make a sculpture out of the remains of the bike and to make teddy bears and cushions out of any clothing material that was left for Harry’s young cousins.
“The police officers told us that everything had been destroyed in the crash as there was a huge explosion. We put it out of our minds.”
She said police informed the family before Christmas that several items including Dunn’s clothing, helmet and the frame of his bike had been frozen and preserved pending the conclusion of criminal proceedings.
Two weeks ago the family found out that human tissue had been discovered on the clothing, and they plan to have a second cremation service on Friday.
“We get the news that there’s also some soft tissue, as they called it, which was another bolt out of the blue. I felt sick, angry and totally bewildered,” Charles said. “Having been kept in the dark is pretty much unforgivable – somebody did not follow protocol way back on day one to let us know where those possessions were.”
The family’s spokesperson, Radd Seiger, said there had been “a massive breakdown in protocol and communication on the part of Northamptonshire police”.
A Northamptonshire police spokesperson said: “Harry’s clothing, helmet and bike were removed from the original collision site in 2019. Recently, police examined the items in order to repatriate them with the family, at which time human remains were subsequently discovered on Harry’s clothing.
“Working with HM coroner’s office in Northamptonshire, an officer returned the human remains to a funeral director on 7 February at the request of Harry’s family. The family have now taken possession of all the remaining property from the collision site in preparation for the private family service later this week. We will, of course, continue to support them going forward.”
DCS Emma James, of the force, said it had been “an extremely complex case” and a “full investigative review” had been commissioned into how the police investigation was carried out.
