A family is pursuing the hospital over the disappearance of a corpse from the mortuary.
The disappearance of a corpse from the St. Martin De Pores Hospital's mortuary six months ago has enraged authorities and mortuary attendants in the Eastern Region.
The family of the late Alfred Kwame Ayer, 81, of Odumase-Krobo, is outraged that their relative's remains, which were being preserved at the facility for burial, mysteriously vanished from the facility.
The deceased died on October 13, 2021, and his remains were deposited at the hospital that day for preservation. To the horror of relatives, the remains of their loved one, who were supposed to be buried on January 29, mysteriously vanished from the mortuary.
The disappearance was discovered on January 13, 2022, about two and a half weeks before the final burial rites.
Determined to seek justice for their loved one, the bereaved family reported the incident to the Odumase Police Command, which referred the case to the Odumase Krobo Circuit Court, which is presided over by Mr. Frank Gbeddy.
Five people, including Asiedu Godfred, 57, Christopher Teye Mensah (Alias Old Soja), also 57, Padi Lawer Joseph, 60, John Teye Batsa, 55, Daniel Batsa Tettey, 49, and Rosario Somey, 45, have appeared in court on charges of stealing.
According to court documents, the accused agreed to "act together with a common purpose to commit crime, to wit stealing," as well as forgery of documents in violation of Section 159 of the Criminal Code of 1960. (ACT 29).
Prosecuting, Detective Chief/Insp Dan Apedo told the court that on the 10th of January, 2022, Christopher Teye Mensah failed to act and forged the deceased's mortuary fridge number in the mortuary record books, as well as the date of collection of the said body.
The complainant in the case, Mr. George Tetteh, was an estate developer based in Agomanya and the deceased's younger brother, according to the prosecution.
On the 13th of October, 2021, the complainant deposited his brother’s remains at the mortuary where the accused persons worked with Christopher Teye Mensah to receive the body.
Somewhere in December, 2021, the facility was forced to transfer all bodies to a different fridge in the same mortuary following days of power outage in the Krobo area.
It was established that Christopher Teye Mensah who was in charge of writing the fridge numbers against the corpses, during the transfer of the bodies failed to write that of only the late Mr. Ayer in the official record book of the mortuary.
Prosecution furthered that on the 10th of January, 2022, the complainant, George Tetteh paid the mortuary bills of the deceased at the hospital’s account office and gave the same to Christopher Teye Mensah.
It was discovered that though the complainant indicated January 28th, 2022 on the official receipt issued as the date for the intended collection of the body, Christopher Teye Mensah however allegedly fraudulently changed the date of collection in the record books to 14th January.
It furthered that one of the attendants at the mortuary, Asiedu Godfred subsequently discovered that the remains of the deceased could not be found on the 13th of January, 2022 when he went to the facility and subsequently reported the matter to the administrator of the St. Martin’s Hospital, Mr. Emmanuel Bosompim who is a witness in the case.
The complainant was subsequently informed and the case was subsequently reported to the Odumase Krobo Police.
Following the report, the management of the hospital conducted a series of checks and head counts of the bodies in the presence of the police, complainant and attendants but the body of the deceased could not be found.
After investigations, it was discovered that the accused persons on the 10th of January, 2022 allegedly conspired to steal the body and have thus been charged with the offence of stealing.
The case has been adjourned to the 12th of August, 2022.
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