Human remains taken from cemetery Family demands answers | News
A man whose relative was laid to rest more than 15 years ago at a cemetery in Manchester is pleading for the return of his loved one’s remains after discovering that the grave had been broken into and was empty.
The man made the disturbing discovery after a video began circulating on social media showing what appeared to be disturbed graves at the cemetery. One grave was wide open, with no casket visible inside. Another appeared partially broken, with what appeared to be skeletal remains visible. For the man, one of the graves was immediately familiar. He recognised it as the plot where his relative had been buried. After seeing the video, he went to the cemetery to confirm whether it was indeed the grave he knew.
“It grieve me so till. People wicked. Them wicked, them wicked can done,” he told THE STAR. According to the man, the concrete structure had been broken and when he examined the grave, he could find neither the casket nor remains he could identify as belonging to his relative. So bewildered was he by the discovery, that he called his other relatives overseas.
“Mi have to call mi sister them a foreign and ask them if them did bury no gold in there weh mi nuh know about,” he said. The man said that he also saw what appeared to be bones in another damaged grave but has no way of knowing whether any of them belong to his relative.
“Like, how can someone do that? Who sit down and come up with this concept to go to a cemetery and take the remains of someone’s loved one?” he questioned.
“It cut me up, man. Mi family not even get to rest in peace. Just 10 years and odd worth a piece. Who determines that?”
The man said time has not diminished what his relative means to them. He described the deceased as a “sweet and humble soul” who remains deeply loved and cherished by the family. Even if the soul leaves the body at death, he said, the remains left behind did not deserve what happened to them.
“It aggravate me in a way weh mi really can’t explain,” he said.
His frustration is compounded by the lack of information – on who may have disturbed the grave or where his relative’s remains could now be.
“Nobody nah hand no solid information fi give me fi me go report, or at least try and find a body,” he said. He said he does not know whether another member of his family has formally reported the matter.
Under Jamaica’s Public Cemetery Management and Regulation Act, burials within a public cemetery are required to be entered in a register, which must distinguish the part of the cemetery in which each body is buried. The legislation also regulates the removal of remains. Section 21 states that a body interred in a public cemetery cannot lawfully be disinterred or removed except under a licence issued by the chairman of a local board of health and with precautions prescribed by the board.
For the man, however, the legal questions surrounding what happened are secondary to a much more personal one: where is the person his family buried? His appeal to whoever is responsible is simple.
“Them better bring it back, and if dem nuh bring him back by next week, dem ago wake up wid them 1o finger stiff and cyaa move. A the wrong people dem mess wid,” he warned.