Graveyard skull thefts worry Muslims

The Muslim community in the district has expressed serious concern over the increasing incidence of unidentified tomb raiders digging up graves in the cemetery used by the community.

According to community members, some unidentified smugglers of human skulls are desecrating the only Muslim burial ground located at Bidur Municipality- 10.

Mahomad Jafar, a Muslim community member, informed that around a dozen graves in the cemetery were dug up, apparently by human skull traffickers. He also said that in a fresh incident the smugglers have made off with two skulls they dug up from the burial ground on Wednesday.

“Human skulls have been disappearing from our community graveyard since the last seven years. We complained to the police but despite their word that investigations would be initiated, the smugglers continue to dig up the graves,” Jafar said.

According to Jafar, the skull snatchers had dug up bodies buried just eight months ago. And it is not only the Muslim graveyard. A Christian cemetery in the district also faces incidents of human skull theft.

Last year alone, the tomb raiders made off with 10 skulls that they dug up at the Christian community´s burial ground at Chihandanda in Tupche VDC. The grave diggers are said to be active during nighttime.

The Muslim community´s burial ground extending over two ropanis of land has only a simple wire fence. Mahomad Alam, another community member, alleged that the police are procrastinating over investigations despite repeated requests from the community.

“We have been pressing the police and administration to start investigations into the incidents of tomb raid. But the police promise only to step up security, rather than start investigations,” said Alam, adding that community members want the smugglers to be brought to book.

He also opined that the graveyard will not be safe until and unless the skull snatchers are nabbed.

However, police said that an investigation into the skulls missing from the Muslim burial ground has already started.

“Investigations into the missing human skulls from the burial ground has already started. We have been maintaining special surveillance around the graveyard and stepping up security patrolling,” said Inspector Kushan Kumar Basnet.

“Digging up of graves and excavation of human skulls constitute a grave crime,” he added.

With the increasing incidents of graveyard theft, community members have started to install barbed wire around the graveyard, along with electricity, to make it more secure.

Friday 07 March 2014

http://www.myrepublica.com/portal/index.php?action=news_details&news_id=70585

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Bones stolen from Puerto Rico graveyard

Police in Puerto Rico say graveyard vandals have stolen bones from at least four mausoleums at a cemetery.

In a Sunday statement, police say entire skeletons were taken from two mausoleums and parts of corpses were removed from two other tombs at the cemetery in the southern city of Ponce.

Cemetery caretaker Harold Normandia told police that a total of six tombs had been broken into and desecrated.

Last year, bones from at least 40 bodies went missing from a cemetery in the Puerto Rican mountain town of Gurabo. Relatives said they were devastated by the loss of their loved ones' remains.

Monday 13 January 2014

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/13/bones-stolen-puerto-rico_n_4588016.html

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Man arrested for stealing 56 skulls from cemeteries and setting up a skeleton museum at his home in Austria

A man has been arrested after police found 56 skulls and other human skeletal remains which had been stolen from graves in a museum at his home.

Police conducted a search of the house in Austria's Burgenland province after the unidentified 47-year-old tried to sell three of the skulls and two thigh bones at a flea market.

Detectives discovered the man had created a museum in his home which contained the skulls and 55 other bones.

State broadcaster ORF said Tuesday that the bones were taken from graves of a church cemetery.

Detectives displayed some of the skulls in a cardboard box at a news conference today.

Speaking to The Guardian, a police spokesman said he had never encountered such a case in his 37 years in the force.

He said he did not know why the man had collected the bones or why he had tried to sell some of them.

'But there's nothing new under the sun,' he said.

The man has been charged by police with 'disturbing the peace of the dead' following the discovery.

Police said the bones had now been returned to the cemetery.

Thursday 18 July 2013

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2367074/Man-arrested-stealing-56-skulls-cemeteries-setting-skeleton-museum-home-Austria.html

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40 bodies allegedly stolen from cemetery in Puerto Rico

The remains of at least 40 people are missing from a cemetery in the sleepy mountain town of Gurabo, where officials are trying to solve a mystery that has frightened neighbors and left families distraught.

The apparent thefts occurred at the town's oldest cemetery, which was built in 1912 and features rows of white mausoleums located on the outskirts of Gurabo.

"I have spent nine years with the municipality," Public Works Director Jose Roman told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "I have never, never, ever had something like this happen to me."

No one has been able to explain the disappearances, although many residents believe the bones are being stolen for Santeria rituals, practiced by those who follow the Caribbean-based religion that blends Roman Catholicism and the African Yoruba faith.

Roman acknowledged that possibility, as well as a hypothesis that thieves are snatching boxes made of steel that hold the bones to sell them on the black market. However, he said no bones have been left behind.

Government officials made the discovery last month when they tried to exhume several remains to move them to another cemetery, only to find they were gone.

Since then, Roman has asked the owners of the cemetery's more than 300 mausoleums to verify if their loved ones are still buried there.

Amparo Diaz Santana, a 70-year-old homemaker, said the bodies of two of her nephews are missing.

"When we opened the tomb, they weren't there," she said. "We kept looking, and noticed there were a bunch of other open tombs."

Her family filed a report with police, but no one has been arrested and it seems authorities have no leads.

Roman said there are three full-time employees at the cemetery during the day, but that no one oversees it at night. Finding security guards has been a problem, he said.

Roman said police agreed to drive by the cemetery at night as a preventive measure. Police investigating the case could not be immediately reached for comment.

Arlene Gonzalez, a santera, or Santeria priest, with the Templo Yoruba of Puerto Rico, denied people associated with the faith were to blame. She said the faith employs animals, but not human bodies, in its rituals.

She said the disappearance of the remains could be related to Paleria, another syncretic faith that uses human bones in its rites.

Relatives have been devastated by the loss of their loved ones' remains.

Rosa Feliciano, a 78-year-old homemaker, said she learned in late June that the remains of her son were missing. He died 17 years ago.

"This has caused me the greatest pain ever, even greater than the day I lost him," she said.

Wednesday 3 July 2013

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/03/bodies-stolen-from-cemetery_n_3540152.html?utm_hp_ref=latino-voices

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China plots more sea burials; faces grave space limitation

On April 4 Chinese everywhere will honor their deceased loved ones by packing up bags of gifts, flowers and fare to take to their graves as part of Qingming festival, or Tomb Sweeping Day, a national holiday of adulation for Chinese ancestors. But the more than 2,500-year-old ancient tradition underscores a crippling theme in much of the now-urbanized China: there's no room.

As Quartz reports, city officials are ramping up efforts to change the perceived importance of grave burials by also offering mass burials at sea for the recently departed on Tomb Sweeping Day. Cities like Shanghai, Guangzhou and Jiaxing in Zhejiang province are covering costs for transportation, the sea burial and even offering subsidies ranging from $60 to an upwards of $800. This year Shanghai increased its sea burial subsidy five times more, subsequently leading government officials to add another ship to its sea burial fleet to meet a growing demand.

The relief is likely welcome for an otherwise pricey undertaking. With more than 9 million residents who are increasingly moving to cities, the densely-populated China has trouble keeping up with a demand for burial plots. As TIME reported in 2009, a permanent plot in Hong Kong can cost more than $30,000 while a temporary plot is priced around $3,000, leading some families to send bodies abroad to be buried.

But limited space is not the only problem that the families of China's departed face. Perhaps spreading remains at sea is the best way to avoid grave robberies, which are also problematic in China. Last month four men were arrested in Shanxi for digging up female bodies to sell for ghost marriages, a ritual of burying recently deceased women alongside dead bachelors so they can be together in the afterlife, TIME reports. Ghost marriages are outlawed in China, but the practice continues in some rural areas where a female body can earn up to $21,000 on the black market, according to state-run Global Times.

Chinese people burn over 1,000 tonnes of paper products on Tomb-Sweeping Day. The so-called "white consumption" of sacrificial offerings amounted to about 10 billion yuan within the 24 hours in 2012, according to the China Consumers' Association.

This year, a surging trend of luxury sacrificial offerings is sweeping the nation, with sky-high prices for everything from paper castles to yachts and Apple products. Their price tags range from several hundreds to dozens of thousands of yuan per piece.

"Fake money for burning, paper gold ingots and cigarettes are out of fashion. On the other hand, there are many modern high-end products which sell well both in my shop and online store," says a Nanning funeral products retailer surnamed Huang.

Huang's store stocks over 50 kinds of offerings, including fake property ownership certificates, famous-brand watches and even large castles -- a 20,000-yuan item which many customers have reserved in advance.

Huang's online consumers are scattered across several provinces and regions.

Wei Jiankang, a 52-year-old high school teacher, paid a similar business about 1,000 yuan for a paper iPhone, car and computer to mourn his deceased parents in the Qinglonggang Cemetery in the suburbs of Nanning.

"They bore hardships to bring us up but passed away quite early. My dad never dreamed of driving a car or using a mobile phone," he says, adding that he now wants to gift them such privileges posthumously.

Being a grandfather himself, Wei took his family on the drive from Guilin City to his hometown village near Nanning, where he will burn the sacrifices.

"I felt so much regret that I could not offer them a better life. Though living frugally myself, I bought these things without hesitation upon the store owner's recommendation," says Wei.

In fact, the cost price of a paper mobile phone is only 0.5 yuan and a paper sports car about 1.5 yuan, according to a funeral products workshop owner surnamed Wei in Xitang District of Nanning.

Wei says, "The retailers get windfall profits by prompting this blind vying based on people's special emotions and experiences in mourning their loved ones."

Insiders say this trend is tantamount to profiteering from dead people. The craze has prompted producers and retailers of sacrificial merchandise to come up with new products, a drive which causes immeasurable waste and environmental pollution.

China is a nation that pays great respect to filial piety. And the Qingming Festival, in particular, encourage people to remember departed family members, notes Zhou Xiaozheng, a sociology professor with Renmin University.

"Qingming" means purity, peace and civilization in Chinese, adds Zhou, while urging people to profoundly rethink the purpose of this holiday by honoring the dead in more tasteful ways.

Wednesday 3 April 2013

http://www.sott.net/article/260460-China-plots-more-sea-burials-Faces-grave-space-limitation

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/culture/2013-04/03/c_132283141.htm

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Update: Bihar racket in bodies comes to light

The Araria district police have stumbled upon a case in which a group of persons is suspected to be involved in a racket of bodies, particularly of those struck dead by lightning.

Two instances where bodies have been exhumed have come to light, Superintendent of Police Shedeep Lande told The Hindu . “We were investigating a case of theft of an elephant tooth when we came across a case of a body being exhumed. On the basis of a statement given by an accused, we investigated the matter and found around 35 witnesses.”

Mr. Lande said Majid, who was involved in the theft case, had paid money to two persons in 2011 to exhume the body of a person who was struck by lightning in Madhulata village.

Another instance was recorded at Lali Tola in the same village.

“We are probing the possibility of a racket and would be filing a charge sheet. Mostly people do not report to the police cases of death by lightning as they believe it is an act of God. They want to avoid post-mortem examination and registration of a case as unnatural death,” Mr. Lande said.

Majid, who has a previous case under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, “used to work as a bidder at the Kolkata Customs House mainly dealing in antiques, local snakes, elephant teeth, rhino and penguin skins, which are used for medicinal purposes,” Mr. Lande said.

The police are trying to find out where the bodies were taken.

“There is a dearth of bodies in medical colleges in Western Europe. They are also in demand in China and Nepal,” Mr. Lande said.

The police have announced a cash reward of Rs. 1,000 for information on such incidents.

Saturday 23 March 2013

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-otherstates/bihar-racket-in-bodies-comes-to-light/article4536702.ece

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Missing bodies: Araria police to investigate organ smuggler syndicates

Are bodies of those who died due to thunder being smuggled and sold at an exorbitant price in foreign countries by a smuggler syndicate operating along the Indo-Nepal border? ArariaSPShivdeepLande, replying in the affirmative, said the racket of smuggling of human organs and that of human bodies will be busted soon. Although these villagers are Hindus, they are buried when they die of thunder. Poverty makes it extremely difficult for their relatives to collect firewood for their last rites.

The disappearance of buried bodies of villagers who died due to thunder from Madhulata village under Raniganj PS in Araria district, 35 km from here has posed a problem for the police. Lande said two such bodies were taken out from the grave by a gang of smugglers and when the villagers objected to it, the smugglers' gang paid a sum of Rs 3,000 each to their sons and asked them to come to their Forbesganj office to receive Rs 15,000.

The smugglers, posing as government officials, told villagers that the bodies had been exhumed to verify the claim and payment to be made to their kin. The bodies, which had been taken out from the grave by the smugglers, were that of Neti Rishideo and Naibat Rishideo, Lande said.

Their relatives including sons as well as villagers narrated a shocking story of theft of bodies by the gang members whom they can recognize on seeing. Lande has visited the village twice on the complaints of the relatives of Neti Rishideo and Naibat Rishideo. Within three days of their death, the bodies were taken out clandestinely by the smugglers, the SP said.

All this came to the fore after ivory was recovered from the possession of one, Abdul Mazid Khan, who is in jail facing charges of theft of animal bone and subsequent confessional statements of some of his accomplices. The judicial magistrate himself recorded statements in some cases of theft of ivory and antiques and subsequent recovery.

Meanwhile, bodies of Kumod Singh and his wife, Rina Devi, of Kamalpur village under Raniganj PS (lightning killed them), were exhumed by the smugglers from their graves near Kajradhar, 28 km from here. On the complaint of villagers, the SP, who visited the burial ground from where the bodies were stolen, said smugglers stole only bodies of those who died of lightning or thunder.

The villagers told police that smugglers came and gave some money to them and told them that they were government officials and had come here to verify the bodies so that their family members could get compensation and then took away the bodies with them.

Meanwhile, a smuggler, Abdul Majid Khan, posing to be a member of a Kolkata-based company was allowed by the CJM court, Araria, to be taken on remand on the prayer of the police and SSB, Araria, to quiz him.

Friday 22 March 2013

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/patna/Araria-police-get-after-vital-organ-smugglers/articleshow/19118768.cms

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Police looking for bodies missing from Bihar graves

Police have announced a cash reward of Rs.1,000 each for information about the bodies found missing from graves in Bihar's Araria district, an official said.

The announcement came after bodies of about 50 people killed in various lightning incidents were found to have been exhumed from graves in Raniganj and Simraha areas of Araria, about 350 km from here.

"We are serious about helping people whose kins' bodies are missing from their graves," Superintendent of Police S.W. Lande told IANS.

The appeal has been made to help police ascertain the total number of missing bodies, he said.

Lande said that a gang involved in secretly digging up graves was busted recently. "The gang was involved in selling human organs for medical research in Nepal, China and other countries."

"One of the main accused named Mohammad Majid is already in jail in connection with smuggling of tusks," the police officer said, adding they are on a lookout for two more people in this connection.

"It is really shameful to remove bodies from graves for a few thousand rupees," Lande said.

According to him, human organs or bodies are sold to medical colleges and those who are involved in clandestine medical research in several countries.

In Araria, most of the deaths due to lightning go unreported owing to religious beliefs, Lande said.

Wednesday 20 March 2013

http://www.newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2013/03/20/277--Police-looking-for-bodies-missing-from-Bihar-graves-.html

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Medical knowledge used to depend on grave robbing

Last week’s chilling discovery that bodies within Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois were routinely being dug up and moved so that the burial plots could be sold again offers an opportunity to remind Americans that it was only two hundred years ago that “resurrectionists” would routinely raid cemeteries in order to provide cadavers for dissection classes in medical schools.

Those who made their living procuring bodies usually started at the poorhouse. Sometimes they would send young women as mourners who would arrive at the almshouse and claim the body of their newly deceased “relatives.” Bribes to staff members–no fake mourner involved–were also successful at gaining access to unclaimed bodies not yet been put in the ground. If these methods did not provide enough cadavers to fill local needs, then resurrectionists paid off public officials or burial ground employees so that they could gain access to potters’ fields and other cemeteries

In any of the burial grounds, stealth was necessary in order to avoid getting caught by family members and cemetery employees who had not been bribed. The men dug quickly and used wooden spades to prevent the clanging sound of a metal one. The grave robbers mastered the art of unearthing just one end of the coffin and then they used a crowbar to pry open the top half of the lid (the weight of the earth on the other end of the coffin lid helped them snap the lid off). A rope was then put around the body so it could be dragged out. Resurrectionists prided themselves on leaving clothing and jewelry behind. Body snatching was only a misdemeanor; thievery of the belongings upgraded the crime to a felony.

Body snatching presented a terrible problem for the families of the deceased. They commonly set up watch over the body until burial, and later, relatives would take turns watching over the grave for a few days to be certain it was not dug up afterward. However, watching the grave was not foolproof. Some of the body snatchers were quite artful, and they devised a way to tunnel in to a recent grave after digging a hole a distance 15-20 feet away. The end of the coffin was then removed and the corpse was pulled out through the tunnel.

Medical students were often responsible for procuring their own bodies, and documents left by the students indicate that the procurement of bodies was actually quite stressful. One fellow wrote: “No occurrences in the course of my life have given me more trouble and anxiety than the procuring of subjects for dissection.” With his friends at Harvard, this fellow, John Collins Warren Jr., created a secret anatomic society in 1771 called Spunkers, whose purpose was to conduct anatomic dissections.

In England the first law that was somewhat helpful in delivering bodies for use by medical students was the Murder Act of 1751, and it stipulated that the corpses of executed murderers could be used for dissection. By the 1820s the United States was beginning to legislate that unclaimed bodies and those donated by relatives could be used for study of anatomy. These changes began to reduce the practice of body-snatching.

The situation in Illinois today is totally regrettable, and while family members will likely have the satisfaction of knowing the criminals were caught, they will never know what happened to their loved ones. And this time, it didn’t aid medical progress.

Thursday 14 March 2013

http://americacomesalive.com/2009/07/16/medical-knowledge-used-to-depend-on-grave-robbing/

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