Corpse disappears from mortuary

Central Police Station officers are investigating a bizarre disappearance of a baby's corpse from Princess Marina Hospital mortuary.

Assistant Superintendent Keoagile Tau confirmed the incident but said they were still clueless of the whereabouts of the body. "It's true that we've been investigating such a case since it was reported last week. We wish to appeal to anyone with information to contact the nearest police station," he said.

It is alleged that on January 31, a 30-year old mother gave birth to twin boys but one of them was born dead and was taken to the hospital mortuary.

On Tuesday last week, the mother who had been in the hospital's maternity ward awaiting finalization of payments and collection of the corpse is said to have approached the front desk seeking to be discharged as she claimed that the corpse had been collected.

She also told nurses that she had made arrangements for the payment of the hospital bill.

Although the nurses confirmed with the mortuary that the body had been collected, they suspected that something was amiss as they still had the birth notification form which is used for preparing birth or death certificates and also used for burial procedures.

The mother is alleged to have told nurses that the body was buried at Broadhurst, but later changed her statement as she said she paid the mortuary attendant P400.00 to incinerate the body.

The mortuary attendant however denied ever incinerating the corpse but said she released it as the family had produced a P1000.00 receipt as proof of payment for mortuary services.

Assistant Superintendent Tau says investigations into the matter are underway.