A man arrested after moving his mother’s body from her grave has been told he may face a charge of grave desecration after asking people for help removing the coffin
A man has been arrested after digging up his mother’s body from her grave – before driving the coffin home in his car.
The unnamed man told an investigating judge he just wanted to check she was really gone because her death three days earlier had occurred so suddenly. He spent the night in a police cell and was subsequently examined by a psychologist who concluded there was no reason to admit him to hospital, meaning he was instead brought to court.
The surreal episode occurred yesterday (December 28) between 1pm and 3pm in the La Carriona municipal cemetery in the Asturian town of Aviles, Spain. Witnesses informed a local priest after the dead woman’s son marched up to the funeral site yelling she had been taken from her home “without permission”. He then began removing flowers from the tomb and put her tombstone on the ground, smashing a brick partition protecting the coffin and then dragging it to his car, which was parked nearby.
Members of the public who watched the man drag the coffin to his car tried to dissuade him from doing so but instead of stopping, he reportedly asked them for help. The man asked for help before placing the coffin in the boot of the vehicle, with the back seats already lowered so he could transport his mother’s coffin two miles back home.
Police then found him and his dead mother at the property, with the body still in the casket. The man was then arrested by police before the coffin was returned to the cemetery and put back in its final resting place. But a judge later ordered the coffin to be removed a second time, this time with a warrant, for the benefit of the family.
The judge ruled the family could formally identify who was inside, ordering police to present them the coffin and allow the family to take pictures of the corpse inside. The woman’s son, who has only been referred to by his initials R.A.D. in the local press, was photographed around midday yesterday being taken to court in handcuffs. He was flanked by two armed officers.
He was released about an hour later after being questioned by a judge and was told he could visit his mother at the cemetery where he removed her body. The judge warned him, however, that he remains under investigation and could be charged with grave desecration.
The man has declined to make any comment on the matter and left the court in Aviles with his lawyer. It has not been made immediately clear how his mother died or how old she was at the time of death.
