Turn To Tara: Veterans calls for probe of VA neglect

<p>There are renewed calls for answers after a News 12 probe last May revealed that the body of a decorated war hero was neglected and left to decompose at a local VA.</p>

News 12 Staff

Feb 20, 2018, 10:31 PM

Updated 2,262 days ago

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There are renewed calls for answers after a News 12 probe last May revealed that the body of a decorated war hero was neglected and left to decompose at a local VA.
Korean War veteran Santos Colon, of Newburgh, died back on Nov. 2,, but his body was left to rot for four months and reportedly started to liquefy before anyone even noticed him at the VA in Montrose.
Westchester veterans groups say they have waited patiently for an explanation, but their patience has run out.
Ron Tocci, the commissioner of Westchester County Veterans Agency, says that the VA promised to investigate the shameful oversight. The nearly dozen local veterans groups that make up the Westchester County Service Committee stayed silent, waiting for answers that still haven’t arrived 10 months later.

The groups held a meeting three days ago and decided to pen a sharply worded letter to the U.S. secretary of Veterans Affairs in Washington, D.C. describing “one of the most shameful examples of disrespect toward a veteran by a VA facility.“

News 12’s repeated calls to the inspector general for Veterans Affairs have gone unanswered.

 


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