All that was left on the night Alex Gordon went missing from his job at a Greer recycling center were his cap and his keys.
He and his father Michael Gordon had eaten what they call dinner, even though it was 11 p.m. and they were working the night shift at Industrial Recovery and Recycling in Greer, Gordon’s lawyer George Brandt III said Thursday.
Michael Gordon was the supervisor that May night and when they returned to the floor, he was called away to look at a problem with a machine.
Alex returned to man a shredder, which grinds up plastic waste to ultimately make pellets for reuse. Brandt said he has not been to the plant yet, but it’s been described to him as a process in which a forklift picks up a waste bin and dumps the contents into the top of the shredder.
By the time Gordon got back, Alex was gone.
The father checked the break room. Nothing. He wondered if his son had gotten sick and walked the mile or so to their home. Not there. He went back to the plant, turned off the machine and looked into the shredder. No sign of Alex.
“Slowly it dawned on him,” Brandt said.
The father believes his son reached over a railing to get some material out of the bin that had become stuck.
“It’s kind of a blur after that,” Brandt said.
The machine kept running.
The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office was called.
Then, on a conveyor belt attached to the shredder came some sort of human tissue. It was collected, packaged in a plastic bag and sent for testing.
Brandt said, “There is no doubt in our mind he is deceased. The machine killed him.”
DNA in the material sent for testing matched Alex’s parents.
Some 60,000 pounds of plastics were processed through that machine in subsequent days.
Brandt said he has petitioned for the Spartanburg County Probate Court to issue a declaration of death. It is the first step in getting the Department of Health and Environmental Control to issue a death certificate when there is no body.
A hearing date on the request has not been set, according to the Probate Court.
Brandt has also filed a claim with the South Carolina Workers Compensation Commission.
Spartanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said he could not issue a death certificate without a body and closed the case earlier this month. His office was called three weeks after Gordon went missing when the test results were returned.
Brandt said his office and investigators have been told they can go inside the plant Aug. 10.
For the family, everything is at a standstill. They can’t plan a funeral for the 20-year-old.
“It’s hard to fathom it,” Brandt said.
Michael Gordon no longer works at the plant.
The investigations go on.
Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office Lt. Kevin Bobo said the case remains open but did not offer details on what specifically they were investigating.
OSHA opened an investigation in mid-June to see if there were safety violations. Such a review takes at least eight weeks.
The owners of Industrial Recovery and Recycling have not returned calls seeking comment.
“It’s a tragic case,” Brandt said. “For the family and for Industrial Recovery and Recycling.”
