By NOELLE NICOLLS

Tribune Features Editor

nnicolls@tribunemedia.net

FAMILY members of murder victim Noel “Noey” Roker are in a state of shock over claims that the body of their loved one was left in an open grave at the Southern Cemetery, some two months after his death.

“I just took two Panadol and had to lie down. It is making me sick,” said a family member of the deceased, who refuted claims that the family did not have money for a proper burial.

According to the official crime report, police received information that two men were seen disposing of a garbage bag in a grave late Friday afternoon in the public cemetery on Cowpen Road. Police launched an intensive investigation after they found the body of a man, fully clothed, in an open grave. They are currently questioning a 32-year-old man of Kool Acres in connection with the incident.

“Even if the family could not afford it, they shouldn’t do that. They should go to the government. That is a poor excuse,” said a family member. “If the people didn’t see, we wouldn’t have known what went down.”

The discovery comes on the heels of The Tribune’s exclusive “Dignity in Death” series, in which the inner workings of the funeral services industry are being exposed. Industry insiders claim unethical practices abound in the profession, particularly as there is no government oversight, and no operational professional body to set or maintain standards.

The situation could snowball, claimed one source.

According to a professional who works in the industry, the vehicle used to dispose of the body “got stuck in a hole” inside the cemetery. People hanging around the cemetery, presumed to live in the area, were asked to help “push the van out the hole,” said the source. The incident aroused their suspicion and on inspection of the grave, the body was found and the police were called.

“They didn’t even bother to cover the body. You don’t just dump a body. That is like dumping a dog on the side of the road. There is a legal way to do these things. They were just taking short cuts,” claimed the industry insider.

The funeral home that had carriage of the body was allegedly instructed to get rid of the body because the family did not have enough money for a proper burial, according to reports from police sources.

This explanation was questioned by some family members, who said that the funeral home that took responsibility of the body after it was released from the morgue was not the original funeral home selected to handle the arrangements.

The family members who identified the body at the morgue were to be contacted when the body was ready for discharge. When the family followed up, however, they discovered that the body was taken by another funeral home, on instructions of another family member.

“They took the body without us knowing,” said the family member. “He said he had a better deal. We did not want a deal; we wanted him to be buried.”

Hustling over contracts is a common practice in the funeral services industry, which demeans the profession and dishonours the dead, according to industry professionals, who say families are sometimes led to blows over the haggling. 

The proper procedure if a family is unable to pay for interment, according to industry workers, is for the Ministry of Works to be contacted. The government assigns a plot for the individual and pays the funeral home a minimum fee to bury the body. The Ministry of Works could not be reached for confirmation.