7 News Belize

A Late Night Exhumation and Grave Mix-Up Stirs Controversy For City Hall
posted (April 11, 2013)
Lord Ridge is the oldest and biggest cemetery in the country – and, tonight, the city council is in the middle of another ugly controversy over it. This time it's about burying someone in the wrong grave, and then having to exhume them in a late night operation. That happened last night at 11:00 and the man known as Easy Glen – who bases his operations near the Cemetery - told us what he witnessed:

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen" - Lord Ridge Whistle Blower
"Well last night, the first thing they did, they came with their equipment. They set out their generators and so forth; most of the guys that you see work at the Council, they had their rubber boots, their full gears. They prepared up themselves because they had advised the council to get the proper gears for them. They broke open the tomb and took out the box."

Reporter
"The man that was buried here:is it the man that was buried in the grave beside?"

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"That's right in the proper grave in which he had belonged."

Reporter
"As far as you know about these stuff, was it carried out in the proper way?"

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"Well, I will be straight up. It had been carried out in the proper way because they had gotten advice from the supervisor here at the burying ground, Mr. Betran, and Mr. Long at the KHMH. Right, but to say if the Health Department and so forth was involved, no."

Reporter
"Do you know if any of the family member was around?"

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"Not one! I doubt even these people have been contacted. When they come back here, they will go at the same spot where they remember that funeral took place. So I'm saying the person will not be here no more."

Reporter
"These remains were placed in garbage bags and just set on the side?"

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"Well, the remains now that you might see in garbage bags, those are when we are dealing with a re-opened tomb. When the family request it, we go in there and take out the bones. But the main concern with that now, we used to have the house in the burial ground where we used to store the bones and so forth. Now that it is not there so, it's just left right here in the burial ground until the funeral is ready."

Reporter
"Some people will say, 'Easy Glen' isn't pleased with City Council so you have an axe to grind. So, you're just trying to make trouble. We can't believe everything you say.' How would you respond to that with regard to this story?"

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"Well, I will say this. This isn't about the Council. The Mayor knows that I am someone who highly supports him and I think this is the best Mayor that I have ever come across between Joe, Zenaida - the entire crowd of them. I take my hat off to Darrell."

Reporter
"So it's not a personal vendetta? It actually happened."

Goldbourne Adolphus, "Easy Glen"
"No, No! Sis, this is reality. Seeing is believing and you cannot be disputed."

And today the City Council press officer did not dispute most of what Easy Glen had to say. A stone-faced Kenny Morgan said it's an unfortunate error and one that has been remedied – beyond that, he stuck to the oldest rule in the PR book: deny, deny, deny:

Kenny Morgan - City Council Press Officer
"An exhumation was conducted last night. As far as we know, everyone who was to be notified, including family members were there. No, there are no other exhumations scheduled. There are a few discrepancies with regards to the numeration of some graves and placement of some bodies but that situation has not reached the stage where we have decided that there should be another exhumation."

Reporter
"Can you explained what happened, why there had to be an exhumation last night?"

Kenny Morgan<br /> "A body was inadvertently placed in the wrong grave due to wrong information reaching the City Council with regards to the personnel at the cemetery. The numeration of the graves and the identification of the grave was at the cemetery. It was one person who was inadvertently placed in the wrong grave, and that situation has been rectified. This situation arose because of the fact that, haphazard management of the cemetery over years gone by has created some problems with regards to identifying graves by the row and numbers usually assigned to them. So, there are times when, as in any other process, mistakes would arise and we do our best to rectify these errors as they come to our attention."

Reporter
"Because the house that the undertaker used to use, is now no longer there. The remains that are in the hole that they have to take out for a temporary period, is basically left out in the sun. Can you speak to that?"

Kenny Morgan
"I don't see where we need to speak to that unless there is some evidence to prove that these remains are being left out in the sun. Do you have any evidence to support that?"

Reporter
"We don't."

Kenny Morgan
"Surely, it is definitely not a matter for us to answer to at this time. I do not have any information on that."

Reporter
"I can provide you with the evidence, Mr. Morgan. This is a picture I took just this morning with the garbage bag, with the bones, lying in the sun hot, right beside a grave."

Kenny Morgan
"All I am seeing there is a bag that looks like some bones. That could have come from and could have been taken anywhere."

Reporter
"Again, that's the bag and that is one of the workers right there. This is showing the grave site."

Kenny Morgan
"Yes, all I am seeing is a bag beside a grave and an individual."

Reporter
"Well the evidence is real, I can tell you; I took that picture. I took that picture and I looked in that bag. There were human remains in that bag taken out of that hole."

Kenny Morgan
"And I guess that you were also there to see it being removed from a grave inside the Lord Ridge Cemetery to the bag. I am saying that at the Council we have no evidence to support what you're saying. So, this is why I am saying do you know where it came from?"

Reporter
"I get you, Mr. Morgan"

Kenny Morgan
"I am saying we have no evidence to lead us to believe that that was what was alleged to you." Morgan says that the council is overhauling its policy on opening graves at Lord's Ridge. He adds that no relief or compensation was given to the family of the exhumed person because it was a genuine error."

Home | Archives | Downloads/Podcasts | Advertise | Contact Us

7 News Belize