Confusion marred a funeral service at Musutsu village, Lumakanda location in Lugari Sub County after it emerged that the corpse that was being prepared to be buried was not the right one.
Members of the bereaved family and well-wishers had converged at the home of Colletta Vifafwa Ziezie to inter her remains when the family received a shocking call from the mortuary attendant at the Kimbilio funeral home where the granny’s body was preserved asking them to stop the burial informing them the body didn’t belong to them.
According to the family led by Dillon Mulusa there was a mix-up at the mortuary during the collection of the bodies and their mother’s body had been taken by a family from Chegulo in neighboring Malava Sub County.
He said it was the Chegulo family that after keenly examining the body in preparation for burial realized it wasn’t their kin before contacting the mortuary attendant.
However the family said the two bodies resembled each other and it required a keen examination to differentiate them.
“They really resembled and had it not been for an elderly woman from Chegulo who realized the body did not belong to them we could all have buried wrong corpses,” said Mulusa.
The burial service was forced to stop as arrangements were made to ferry the body to Chegulo where they exchanged and returned to bury her.
The incident has left residents perplexed urging family members to be keen when collecting bodies of their beloved ones from mortuaries.
“It’s shocking the two families couldn’t identify the body of their mothers,” concluded Mr. Joram Mutembuli
