Nursing Homes in NJ, USA, 17 Bodies Found, Makeshift Morgue, Governor Murphy Get Them Out of Harm’s Way!

Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Andover, N.J., where 17 bodies were found in a small morgue.Credit…Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times

Tip leads police to 17 bodies at a New Jersey nursing home

ANDOVER, New Jersey — A tip of a body in a shed led Andover Police to one of New Jersey’s largest nursing homes Monday evening where they found 17 bodies in the facility’s morgue, one of the responding officers told CNN.

The officers responding to the Andover Subacute and Rehab Center II didn’t find a body in the shed, but employees asked them for assistance with the bodies in the morgue.

“The staff was clearly overwhelmed and probably short-staffed,” Andover Police Chief Eric Danielson, one of the responding officers, told CNN. “The residents were expiring. Why? We’re not sure if it’s from Covid-19 or from other diseases, but we tried our best to ease the burden.”

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Nursing homes have been a vulnerable target for the pandemic that has killed more than 30,000 people in the US. Visitors have been barred in many facilities to reduce bringing in infections, and staff has raced to treat patients as the virus spreads internally. It is not clear, however, if coronavirus was the cause of the deaths at Andover Subacute.

When officers arrived Monday, they found each of the 17 bodies in a body bag with a tag identifying the deceased. The morgue was only intended to hold up to four people, according to The New York Times.

Four bodies remained on site, and the other 13 were transferred to a refrigerated trailer at Newton Medical Center. Danielson did not provide any identifying details regarding the victims.

CNN has reached out to the center.

Danielson said he was in awe seeing so many bodies.

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ADDITIONAL READING ON NEW JERSEY NURSING HOME:

After Anonymous Tip, 17 Bodies Are Found at Nursing Home Hit by Virus

The call for body bags came late Saturday.

By Monday, the police in a small New Jersey town had gotten an anonymous tip about a body being stored in a shed outside one of the state’s largest nursing homes.

When the police arrived, the corpse had been removed from the shed, but they discovered 17 bodies piled inside the nursing home in a small morgue intended to hold no more than four people.

“They were just overwhelmed by the amount of people who were expiring,” said Eric C. Danielson, the police chief in Andover, a small township in Sussex County, the state’s northernmost county.

The 17 were among 68 recent deaths linked to the long-term care facility, Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I and II, including two nurses, officials said. Of those who died, 26 people had tested positive for the virus.

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Lily Repasch, 84, died three weeks ago at Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center I.

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17 Bodies Found in NJ Nursing Home After Anonymous Tip

A phone call led police to a gruesome scene at a nursing home in New Jersey that has been ravaged by the coronavirus.

Police say they found 17 bodies piled inside a small morgue at the Andover Subacute and Rehabilitation Center in Sussex County. An anonymous tip said the bodies had been moved there after being stored in a shed, the New York Times first reported.

Rep. Josh Gottheimer later confirmed to NBC New York that prior to the disturbing discovery, he had received a call from one of the nursing home’s administrators, also infected with COVID-19, that more body bags were needed. The congressman said 68 people have died inside the senior facility, 26 of whom had tested positive for the virus and two were staff members.

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