The AP calls it a “Grave Error“. Apparently two men are being buried in a military cemetery with the same name and same social security number, one a popular family man and the other alone and homeless:

“I’ve got 200,000 people buried here, but I’ve never seen anything like this,” Calverton director Michael Picerno said. “Ninety-nine percent of the time, the family has all the information, all the documentation, so these things never happen.”

Well, 99% of 200,000 is 198,000, so that leaves 2,000 people buried without all the documentation. Seems like a sizeable number.

Officials are exploring several scenarios in trying to solve the mystery.

One is identity theft — the man who died in 2003 could have simply stolen Willie Hayes’ personal information at some point and went to his grave as an impostor.

I guess it is unlikely he stole it after he went to his grave.

Another is that the man in the grave really was named Willie Hayes — and perhaps even a veteran — but his Social Security number and personal information somehow got mixed up with those of the other Willie Hayes.

Somehow? What kind of scenario includes “somehow” as the root-cause?

I have not looked into it but I suppose there is no advantage to identity theft in death except for in the military cemeteries.