After Man’s Funeral, He Turns Up

OKLAHOMA CITY — Charles Wyckoff and his wife had returned home after a funeral for their son when the phone rang.

“Hey, Dad,” Kevin Wyckoff said.

“Huh. Well.... We just had your funeral today,” his father said, according to a transcript of the call provided this week by the Oklahoma Corrections Department.

“Yeah, I know. I heard,” Kevin Wyckoff said.

“Well, what ... is going on?” his father asked.

Prison officials had misidentified an inmate who had hanged himself behind bars as Wyckoff. The inmate, who was buried Monday in Wyckoff’s place, is believed to be Steven L. Howe, the Corrections Department said.

Wyckoff, 23, is serving a five-year sentence for offenses including kidnapping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. The Corrections Depart- ment had a transcript of Wyckoff’s conversation with his parents because it routinely monitors inmate calls.

The younger Wyckoff said prison officials had put Howe’s name on a cell where Wyckoff had been moved, and left Wyckoff’s name on the cell where Howe committed suicide.

Corrections Department spokesman Jerry Massie said investigators were trying to determine whether the two inmates switched cells without permission or if prison workers made the switch without filing a report.

Both had entered the prison, the Lexington Assessment and Reception Center, on Dec. 5 and are similar in appearance, officials said.

Sequoyah County Dist. Atty. Richard Gray said that if Howe’s family agrees, his body could be exhumed next week.