Greek Police investigates the macabre case of a woman who has been allegedly buried alive. Eye witnesses visiting the cemetery in Perea claimed that they heard a muffled call for help coming from a grave. Efforts to dig out the coffin were started immediately but meanwhile the woman had apparently died of suffocation.
According to Greek media, the 49-year-old woman was a terminally ill cancer patient hospitalized in a private clinic in Thessaloniki, Northern Greece. She was declared dead early Thursday. Her family received her body on the same day and the funeral was held at 6:30 pm on the same day.
An hour later after the funeral, a cemetery worker but also some teenagers hanging around heard a muffled call form inside of a grave, “a female voice calling for help.”
The cemetery worker called the police and immediately started to dig out the coffin, however when the coffin was opened the woman showed no signs of life.
Doctors of an ambulance at the spot examined the body and pronounced her dead. An autopsy will investigate the real causes of her death.
The anger of the woman’s family is indescribable and is about to file lawsuits against all possible responsible involved in the case. The family now claims that the woman did not die while at the hospital but she had either fallen into come or she was at a temporary state of “suspended animation”.
The private clinic says that the woman died at the hospital and her death was confirmed with an electrocardiogram.
The ambulance doctor who examined the exhumed body told reporters that she did the examination 10 minutes after the exhumation and that the body had signs of stiffness.
The coroner’s report is expected with great anticipation.
A macabre farce? A horrible doctors’ mistake? The case of a human being to have been buried alive is unprecedented in Greece.
UPDATE: 8 pm
Media report that examination conducted by four coroners confirm that the woman was dead before she was buried as there was no sign of suffocation. The woman had apparently died form heart attack.
Police still investigates the case especially the witnesses’ claims that they had a “call” from the gave.
