STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.

Was 27-year old Thomas McClure really cremated by accident in a Boston morgue after pretending to be dead for a prank? No, that did not happen, it is just a new twist on an old hoax.

The story originated from an article published on April 1, 2018 on 8shit.net titled "Morgue Employee Pretends To Be Dead For April Fools; Gets Cremated" (archived here) which opened:

Wrong prank in the wrong place. It's April Fools. Everyone wants to prank their friends, family and even customers, but this man got it very wrong. 27-year old Thomas McClure is now an ex-employee of a morgue in Boston, after he tried to prank his coworkers by pretending he was dead. To achieve his goal, he [...]

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Morgue Employee Pretends To Be Dead For April Fools; Gets Cremated

Wrong prank in the wrong place. It's April Fools. Everyone wants to prank their friends, family and even customers, but this man got it very wrong. 27-year old Thomas McClure is now an ex-employee of a morgue in Boston, after he tried to prank his coworkers by pretending he was dead. To achieve his goal, he [...]

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Furthermore, 8shit.net carries a disclaimer on its about page that reads:

8Shit is a satire and humor website.

It contains cutting edge satire on a diverse range of topics.

The website publishes fake news, shocking rumors and reports with incisive sarcasm, and humor.

We also post crazy real news which often sounds too good to be true.

And an additional disclaimer in the footer of every page:

8Shit is a satire news and humor website. All its content is fiction (except those posts under the "serious" category) and shouldn't be taken as real. All references, names and marks or institutions in this website are used as contextual elements, like in any novel or science-fiction story.