Undertakers switch bodies, cremate wrong woman

Undertakers switch bodies, cremate wrong woman

Instead, Bozo Bazina learned that his mother-in-law, who was to have a traditional burial, was cremated. He learned this at the chapel, when he saw the unknown woman's body. The family learned the truth when they came to take over the body for the scheduled funeral.

"I came to identify the body and it was then that I saw the deceased was not the one I came for, and then a worker told me to take a better look?! I told him, that's not the one, don't try to make a fool out of me - after all, my mother-in-law had her teeth, this woman did not. That's when everything started, I called the police, I called everyone to see what was going on," Bazina described the ordeal.

While the family and friends waited at the cemetery, a dramatic search for the body was taking place at the premises of the Public Communal Company (JKP) Pogrebne Usluge (Funeral Services) in Deligradska St. in Belgrade.

"The funeral was scheduled for half past 11, that time passed, the noon passed, and they said nothing. I went to the director to talk and finally I found out that my mother-in-law had been cremated. Then they told me another woman called Ljubica Popovic died the same day, I said this is the Ljubica Popovic that died in Zemun, and then they told me there was a mix-up. Some guy came, I don't know his name, and signed himself. How can a person walk in from the street and identify a body," Bazina wondered.

The sister of the woman who was cremated by mistake, Vera Markovic, said the family and friends who had gathered for the funeral left the cemetery and went to the family home, "not knowing what they were waiting for."

"Bozo only said, sit there and wait, and this is what we lived to see. I can't speak, I have no words..." Markovic said.

The bodies of two persons named Ljubica Popovic, who died on the same day in two different hospitals, were switched when "an authorized private person from a private agency came to identify the body," JKP Pogrebne Usluge representatives explained.

"Two bodies arrived with the same name and surname to our chapel in Deligradska St. The mistake was made due to the erroneous identification. The JKP is in an unenviable position because we cannot control the work of private funeral homes hired by the families," they said.

B92 tried to learn which private funeral home was hired in this case, but due to the Law on Protection of Perosnal Data, this information was not available. JKP Pogrebne Usluge, meanwhile, announced an investigation, "and introduction of more rigorous measures in the future."