Grieving parents from Juneau, Alaska who were told by police that their son, Justin Priest, had died in a car crash were overjoyed hours later after finding him alive and well.

During the early hours of dawn on Thursday, Karen and Jay Priest were awoken to find Juneau police knocking on their door.

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"He knew right away, the dread. It's not good when a trooper knocks on your door at three o'clock in the morning," Karen explained saying that the Alaska State Trooper had informed them that their son, Justin, had died in a car crash.

Stunned, the couple started calling their relatives from other states and later drove out to tell their other son, Cody, about the bad news.

At 4:30 a.m., Cody was awakened to find his disheveled parents in front of his house who later told him that his brother had passed away. He fainted upon hearing about Justin's passing, Karen said.

After recovering from the shock of the news, Cody accompanied his parents to locate Justin's long-time girlfriend, Julia, to tell her personally about the news.

The grief-stricken family located Julia's home in Anchorage at around 5:30 in the morning.

Upon knocking, the Priests were flabbergasted to see Justin, alive and barely awake, opening the door.

"You're alive!" Karen exclaimed, unbelieving to what her eyes are telling her.

"It opens and right here is Justin. I don't even see it but Jay is sobbing. It doesn't compute to me. Then I see him. You want it to be true, but you go, 'Am I hallucinating?'" Karen told the Associated Press.

Stunned and curious why his family were screaming and yelling in the early hours of the morning, Justin later sorted out the confusion.

Justin called the Juneau police and told them about the mistaken identity mix up.

"I'm almost speechless for words," Chief Bryce Johnson the Associated Press adding that they take full responsibility for the mix up.

Relatives of a 33-year-old Justin Donald Priest of Juneau, the victim of the crash that occurred of Wednesday evening, were notified on Thursday afternoon.

TagsJustin Priest, Alaska Police