How was wrong body exhumed?

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    Anonymous

      http://www.asiaone.com/News/The+New+Paper/Story/A1Story20110224-265115.html

      >> ASIAONE / NEWS / THE NEW PAPER / STORY

      How was wrong body exhumed?

      AN URN full of ashes and an erhu sit forlornly in the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery office.

      They remain unclaimed, although some say they know whose remains they are.

      The mystery of these items begins six feet under.

      It began when a person – believed to be the top man in a transport company here – wanted to place his deceased parents’ ashes side by side.

      Early last year, after the death of his mother, his family asked grave diggers to help them dig up his father’s coffin, Lianhe Wanbao reported on Monday.

      But it appears that the wrong coffin was dug up, and the remains of the wrong man were exhumed.

      It’s possible that the family might have even been paying their respects to the wrong person for years.

      It is not known when the father died.

      The coffin that was dug up is believed to have been that of the person buried in the next grave.

      But how could the wrong coffin have been dug up from the right spot?

      Responding to The New Paper’s queries about this incident, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said this was “an isolated case”.

      Said the NEA spokesman: “It is likely that there was soil movement over the years, which might have resulted in the shifting of the coffin.”

      He added that the soil movement could have been a result of the affected grave plots being located on a gentle slope.

      This case came to light around February last year.

      After exhuming the dead man’s remains so that he could be “reunited” with his wife, the family was told that there was an erhu (a traditional Chinese two-stringed fiddle) left behind in the coffin.

      Puzzled

      This puzzled the family because the deceased did not play that instrument, reported Lianhe Wanbao.

      When they asked the grave diggers at the Choa Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery about the appearance of the coffin they dug up, they got another shock.

      The dead man’s coffin ought to have had carvings on it. But the coffin that was dug up was of a more traditional type.

      The managing director of Funeral Solutions Singapore,MrNicky Teo, 23, said such a mix-up is unusual.

      He said the “standard protocol” when doing exhumation – which usually takes place at night – involves opening up the coffin in the presence of family members.

      The company also usually gives burial items and gold items back to the family members first, before burning the remains.

      “We proceed with the burning only if family members are very sure that the person is indeed their loved one,” he said.

      Suspecting that they had dug up the wrong coffin from the correct grave, the family tried to contact the families of those buried nearby.

      Their father’s burial plot was number 449. By October last year, the NEA successfully contacted the family members whose deceased relatives were in plot numbers 448 and450, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

      On Oct 10, under the supervision of all three families, workers were hired to tunnel through to the graves on the left and right of the dead man’s grave.

      They struck the right coffin. But they found it in the wrong spot.

      It was found close to plot number 448, on the right.

      It was removed and the remains were cremated.

      So whose coffin had been dug up earlier, and whose remains had been exhumed?

      Lianhe Wanbao reported that the traditional coffin very likely belonged to the person buried in plot number 450.

      Unclaimed

      But the relatives of that person refused to believe that the coffin of their loved one had been exhumed and the remains cremated.

      They hold fast to their belief that it is still resting in peace in its rightful position – underneath the headstone of plot number 450.

      This is why the ashes of their exhumed loved one and the erhu remain in the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery Office, unclaimed.

      Mr Charles Goh, 42, a self-declared cemetery researcher and the founder of Asia Paranormal Investigators (API), felt the mix-up could be a result of the misalignment of grave plots.
      A22-year-old grave digger from Myanmar, at that sector of the cemetery, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tar, agreed.

      He said: “The line is not straight, not correct.” He added that in the two years that he has been helping to dig graves, he has found some graves in this sector to have shifted slightly either to the left or right.

      But he claimed that he was shocked when he helped to dig up the second coffin last October.

      “It was the first time I was seeing such a major shift,” he said.

      The NEA spokesman has stressed that apart from this “isolated case”, there have been four other private exhumations in this sector.

      In all these cases, the coffins have been identified to be correct by their next-of-kin, hesaid.

      He added: “There was no misalignment for these other grave plots.”

      The NEA implemented the New Burial System in 2007, which “greatly minimises” the possibility of any shifting of the coffins.

      Under this System, each coffin is placed in a concrete crypt with four walls. Underground soil movement thus will not shift the coffins.




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    • #2812

      Anonymous
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        http://www.asiaone.com/News/The+New+Paper/Story/A1Story20110224-265115.html

        >> ASIAONE / NEWS / THE NEW PAPER / STORY

        How was wrong body exhumed?

        AN URN full of ashes and an erhu sit forlornly in the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery office.

        They remain unclaimed, although some say they know whose remains they are.

        The mystery of these items begins six feet under.

        It began when a person – believed to be the top man in a transport company here – wanted to place his deceased parents’ ashes side by side.

        Early last year, after the death of his mother, his family asked grave diggers to help them dig up his father’s coffin, Lianhe Wanbao reported on Monday.

        But it appears that the wrong coffin was dug up, and the remains of the wrong man were exhumed.

        It’s possible that the family might have even been paying their respects to the wrong person for years.

        It is not known when the father died.

        The coffin that was dug up is believed to have been that of the person buried in the next grave.

        But how could the wrong coffin have been dug up from the right spot?

        Responding to The New Paper’s queries about this incident, the National Environment Agency (NEA) said this was “an isolated case”.

        Said the NEA spokesman: “It is likely that there was soil movement over the years, which might have resulted in the shifting of the coffin.”

        He added that the soil movement could have been a result of the affected grave plots being located on a gentle slope.

        This case came to light around February last year.

        After exhuming the dead man’s remains so that he could be “reunited” with his wife, the family was told that there was an erhu (a traditional Chinese two-stringed fiddle) left behind in the coffin.

        Puzzled

        This puzzled the family because the deceased did not play that instrument, reported Lianhe Wanbao.

        When they asked the grave diggers at the Choa Chu Kang Chinese Cemetery about the appearance of the coffin they dug up, they got another shock.

        The dead man’s coffin ought to have had carvings on it. But the coffin that was dug up was of a more traditional type.

        The managing director of Funeral Solutions Singapore,MrNicky Teo, 23, said such a mix-up is unusual.

        He said the “standard protocol” when doing exhumation – which usually takes place at night – involves opening up the coffin in the presence of family members.

        The company also usually gives burial items and gold items back to the family members first, before burning the remains.

        “We proceed with the burning only if family members are very sure that the person is indeed their loved one,” he said.

        Suspecting that they had dug up the wrong coffin from the correct grave, the family tried to contact the families of those buried nearby.

        Their father’s burial plot was number 449. By October last year, the NEA successfully contacted the family members whose deceased relatives were in plot numbers 448 and450, Lianhe Wanbao reported.

        On Oct 10, under the supervision of all three families, workers were hired to tunnel through to the graves on the left and right of the dead man’s grave.

        They struck the right coffin. But they found it in the wrong spot.

        It was found close to plot number 448, on the right.

        It was removed and the remains were cremated.

        So whose coffin had been dug up earlier, and whose remains had been exhumed?

        Lianhe Wanbao reported that the traditional coffin very likely belonged to the person buried in plot number 450.

        Unclaimed

        But the relatives of that person refused to believe that the coffin of their loved one had been exhumed and the remains cremated.

        They hold fast to their belief that it is still resting in peace in its rightful position – underneath the headstone of plot number 450.

        This is why the ashes of their exhumed loved one and the erhu remain in the Choa Chu Kang Cemetery Office, unclaimed.

        Mr Charles Goh, 42, a self-declared cemetery researcher and the founder of Asia Paranormal Investigators (API), felt the mix-up could be a result of the misalignment of grave plots.
        A22-year-old grave digger from Myanmar, at that sector of the cemetery, who wanted to be known only as Mr Tar, agreed.

        He said: “The line is not straight, not correct.” He added that in the two years that he has been helping to dig graves, he has found some graves in this sector to have shifted slightly either to the left or right.

        But he claimed that he was shocked when he helped to dig up the second coffin last October.

        “It was the first time I was seeing such a major shift,” he said.

        The NEA spokesman has stressed that apart from this “isolated case”, there have been four other private exhumations in this sector.

        In all these cases, the coffins have been identified to be correct by their next-of-kin, hesaid.

        He added: “There was no misalignment for these other grave plots.”

        The NEA implemented the New Burial System in 2007, which “greatly minimises” the possibility of any shifting of the coffins.

        Under this System, each coffin is placed in a concrete crypt with four walls. Underground soil movement thus will not shift the coffins.




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