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An elderly couple have had to return the ashes they believed belonged to their deceased son after a mortuary confusion in Cape Town.
The body of her son, a 27-year-old murder victim, was traded for the body of a man who fell off Table Mountain.
Leandria De Freitas tried for almost a month to identify the body of her adoptive brother Morné Coetzer, but was told that he had been cremated. Her ashes were signed by a person with the surname Coetzee.
De Freitas had put off telling her mother, who was ill in hospital, of Coetzer’s death until she had obtained her death certificate and the ashes.
“We have spoken to his doctors, who told us to only tell him once we resolved this whole situation. But I told them that they did not return his ashes to us, that we do not have the death certificate, so if we tell her this in addition to the fact that he has been killed, it could affect her mentally, “he said.
“At least I want to have this all figured out so I can tell him that we recovered his ashes, we have his death certificate and we know it’s him … or we hope to get the ashes right back now.”
His brother was stabbed to death in Wetton, Cape Town, on July 28. On August 24, she and the police investigating officer met with morgue staff, who explained that the man they accidentally crossed with Coetzer had fallen off Table Mountain.
