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Confusion over the identities of two corpses that arrived at the same time at the institute of legal medicine (IML) in Cadiz province in the south of Spain the led to a man from Malaga who wanted to be buried being cremated, while the remains of a woman who should have been cremated almost ended up in Malaga at a wake that was not hers.
In view of this situation, the Junta de Andalucía has opened an investigation into where and how the error occurred, as well as to discover who was responsible for it, according to sources from the regional ministry of justice, which "deeply regrets" the confusion. In the meantime, the director of the IML has contacted both sets of relatives to apologise.
The incident unfolded between the province of Cadiz, where the error occurred, and Malaga, where it was discovered. Earlier this week, a man whose family lives in a town in Malaga died apparently of natural causes in the Barbate area. The body was taken to the IML in Cadiz for an autopsy, as the attending doctor did not certify the cause of death.
At around the same time, the body of an elderly woman who had not been seen by her neighbours for several days was discovered. After entering her home, they found the body of the woman, who, judging by her condition, had died a few days earlier. As in the previous case, she was referred to the IML of Cadiz for forensic examination.
It has not yet been clarified whether the bodies arrived at the IML with a mistaken identification tag or whether the names were exchanged at the forensic clinic, although everything points to the latter hypothesis given that they were not even of the same sex. During this process, contact was made with the family of the deceased woman, who requested that they contact the funeral parlour they had contracted for her to be cremated, as was her wish; while the relatives of the man requested that his remains be transferred to the Malaga cemetery (Parcemasa) for the wake and burial.
It is not known who made the mistake or why. But the fact is that the funeral parlour that carried out one of the services took the man's body to the crematorium, believing it to be that of the woman. After cremating it, the ashes were placed in a funeral urn to be given to the family of the deceased.
At the same time, the man's funeral parlour was notified to collect his body from the IML in Cadiz and take it to Parcemasa, where the man's relatives and friends were awaiting the arrival of his remains for the wake and burial. The confusion was uncovered when funeral parlour employees discovered that the body they were going to transfer was not that of the man, but of a woman.
The authorities, with the help of the funeral parlours involved and with the Guardia Civil in charge, worked to unravel the mess. The officers took the urn with the man's ashes to the funeral parlour in Malaga. Beyond the confusion, the added problem is that his relatives intended to hold a wake for his body and had hired a funeral parlour at Parcemasa.
The IML in Cadiz has reminded all the funeral parlours they work with of the need to comply with the established protocol for the identification of corpses, which will also be reviewed in order to avoid a repetition of this type of situation in the future.
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