HONOLULU -- KITV's investigation of the Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office found that investigators mistakenly sent the personal effects of a dead man to the wrong family.

The man's family called the mistake "painful" and the medical examiner's office has apologized.

Danny Sweeney, 23, drowned on Oct. 18 while body surfing with friends at Sunset Beach. It was the last day of his Hawaii vacation. He lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he worked and went to college.

On Tuesday, KITV found sensitive, personal information about recently dead people, including Sweeney, on documents in the trash on the public sidewalk outside the medical examiner's office.

None of the documents had been shredded. The medical examiner is now reviewing the office's document disposal procedures.

KITV reached Sweeney's mother by phone in California.

"I'm very upset at the loss of my son, but I just think they could have handled it in a better way than to just dump it out on the street," Roberta Sweeney said.

It gets worse. The Honolulu Medical Examiner's Office mistakenly sent his family personal effects that belonged to another man who died a day after Sweeney.

"I'm appalled at it, because I got somebody else's child's effects that should have went to that mother," Roberta Sweeney said.

"It's painful. And I felt bad for their family because I touched everything of their son's," said the victim's aunt, Wendy Johnson.

Danny Sweeney's mother and his aunt said the medical examiner's office sent them wet clothing and a wallet with IDs that belonged to a dead Honolulu man, which arrived in California last Friday.

"They didn't even dry the stuff out. They sent it wet and moldy and it was all nasty," Roberta Sweeney said. "Why would they mix up my son's effects with someone else's effects? They're like not doing their job right. God, that's terrible."

Sweeney's family washed and dried the clothes from the other dead man and sent them back to the medical examiner's office.

The morgue sent them Sweeney's personal effects on Tuesday, including his wallet, cell phone, credit cards and driver's license. They also sent his family a letter, in which investigator Patricia Johnson apologized and said, "I take full responsibility for my actions."

"It was an honest mistake. A painful one, but honest," Wendy Johnson said.

KITV asked Medical Examiner Dr. Kanthi De Alwis for an explanation, and she released a statement that said, "We apologized for our mistake, and offered the family a chance to file a written complaint."

"The family told our department that they had absolutely no intention of doing so and understood that an honest mistake had been made."