(NewsNation) — A California family spent a year looking for their missing daughter only to find out she had been dead in the hospital morgue the entire time, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.

Jessie Peterson, 31, was admitted to Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Sacramento, California, on April 6, 2023, after suffering a diabetic episode, the lawsuit says.

The hospital told Peterson’s family she had been discharged two days later on April 8, but in truth, Peterson had died, according to the lawsuit.

Unaware of her death, the 31-year-old’s family “tirelessly tried to locate Jessie” and filed a missing person’s report with the county sheriff’s department, per the suit.

It wasn’t until April 12, 2024, more than a year later, that Peterson’s family learned of her death. Her body had been stored in “an off-site warehouse morgue” where she was “left to decompose for nearly a year,” the suit says.

“At this point, Jessie’s body was so decomposed that an open casket funeral was not feasible, and Jessie’s fingerprints were not even obtainable for any keepsake,” according to the lawsuit. Her body was also “so discolored that her tattoos could not be identified.”

Peterson’s death certificate states that she died from cardiopulmonary arrest. According to the lawsuit, it was not completed until nearly a year after she passed.

Because her death was not reported to the family for a year, an autopsy to determine whether medical malpractice played a role was “rendered impossible,” the suit says.

Ginger Congi, Peterson’s mother, told NewsNation local affiliate KTXL that she’s lost all confidence in the hospital and its treatment of people.

“I think that they treated Jessie with total disregard and lack of humanity and compassion,” Congi said.

The family’s negligence lawsuit is seeking $5 million in actual damages as well as punitive damages.

Dignity Health, which operates Mercy San Juan Medical Center, did not respond to NewsNation’s request for comment Friday.