Shock follows mortuary mix-up

2007-11-01 07:36

Virginia Keppler

Pretoria - A huge furore erupted when a Free State family who thought they had buried their loved one and her newborn baby son, realised that they had laid to rest a stranger who closely resembled the deceased.

Marietjie Coetzee, 64, of Edenville said they thought they were burying her daughter Susan Watkins, 40, and her baby Henry, but later discovered there had been a mistake.

The mix-up was uncovered as Anna Beukes of  Keimoes got ready to wash the body of her sister Sara Koetze, 52, in preparation for her burial.

"When I saw her face, I immediately realised it wasn't my sister. I don't want to say anything more, because I'm heartbroken and I just want my sister back," Beukes said.

Car crashes on same day

Meanwhile Coetzee, Watkins's children and the other members of the family were shocked to hear that Henry had been laid to rest on a stranger's breast, in the grave of their father Johan, at Christiana.

Watkins and her tiny baby had been killed in a car crash on the road from Jan Kempdorp to Rustenburg on October 21, and their remains were taken to the Lichtenburg mortuary.

Koetze died in another car crash on the same day, and her body was taken to the same mortuary.

The only person at Watkins's funeral who saw that there had been a mistake, was her mother.

"When I saw the body in the coffin I ran out and shouted hysterically at my family, and cried (to them) that it was not my child."

But her family thought she was just shocked and emotional.

"I could see it was my grandson, but the woman didn't look at all like my child."

"The undertakers said that I should remember that she had been very badly injured. I said maybe so, but this wasn't my child," Coetzee said.

Only Coetzee and her two grandsons Johan, 20, and Danele, 17, saw Watkins's body during the funeral.

Johan and Danele had gone to Lichtenburg mortuary to identify their mother's remains.

"The day was saw her in her coffin she looked different."

"I thought it was because she had been so badly injured and because of the swelling that she'd become darker," Danele said.

They also couldn't see their mother's hair because it was covered.

Coetzee had to submit a sworn statement to the police to initiate the process of exhuming Koetze's remains.

She drove to Jan Kempdorp herself to await her daughter's remains. "We can't afford any more mistakes, because we have no more money."

- Beeld