Fury as funeral mourners told body is missing

People had gathered at Eastern Cemetery in Hull to finally lay to rest 77-year-old Grace Kamara, a Nigerian widow who had lived in the city for more than 50 years.

The circumstances of her funeral have, however, been drawn into one of the most controversial cases ever in Humberside Police’s history – the death in police custody of Christopher Alder.

It now appears that in a shocking blunder Mrs Kamara’s body may have been buried in place of Mr Alder in 2000.

The incident came to light only after the mourners insisted they had to see the body of the deceased, a tradition in the Benin culture into which Mrs Kamara was born.

On the day of the funeral last Friday, close friend Christine Omoregie had taken burial clothes, a roll of white lace cloth, to the mortuary at Hull Royal Infirmary, to dress Grace, whom she and her children knew as “Iye” or mother.

She told the Yorkshire Post: “They said they were going to defreeze her and they were going to dress her; they took the clothes from me. When we wanted to see the body they said it was not possible.

“She warned me that since she had died a long time ago and they were going to bring her from the freezer she wouldn’t be the same.

“But my husband is a medical doctor, and I said I would come with nurses. I was not afraid.”

She was reassured that staff would dress the body and left for Eastern Cemetery, where mourners were gathering for the funeral, due to start at 1pm.

But there she says she was met by Hull Council’s bereavement services manager Nikki Hewitt, who told her: “I have bad news, we can’t find Grace’s body. We’re looking for it.”

To add to confusion, they were then told the body had been found at Castle Hill Hospital and Mrs Omoregie insisted the body must be seen.

By that time the 30 mourners were becoming agitated: “They were very annoyed,” said Mrs Omoregie. “Some of them burst out crying.”

It was then that a man, who identified himself as having been “in charge of the body for years” suggested it was at Hull Royal Infirmary after all. He left, followed by a group of mourners.

Mrs Omoregie stayed put for a time but then went to the hospital herself, together with Mrs Kamara’s great-nephew, from London. At the hospital, however, she was called into a room and told they couldn’t find the body.

“I came out and I told people. They were angry; people were crying. They are asking why did they deceive them to this point in time?

“People were saying they wouldn’t leave until they had seen the body – but I said we must deal with this in a civilised manner. Security was called because people were saying they couldn’t come all this way for people to experience this.”

Mrs Omoregie who had planned a wake with food at the Afro-Caribbean centre in Hull, and even bought mugs with Grace’s image for people to take home, said the family would sue: “The family would claim damages because everyone was messed around. It is horrendous.”

She added: “I am amazed, surprised that this could happen in our first world civilised country. Britain is a great country, why should this happen?

“We should have been told this long ago.”

Grace Kamara was found dead in the bedroom of her home in Hobart Street in the city on December 1, 1999. With no relatives on hand to undertake the funeral arrangements – tradition dictates the body should be given to the “rightful blood-related person” – the ceremony took years to arrange, as relatives kept being denied visas. So long in fact that a younger brother of Grace who was due to be chief mourner had a stroke, and his son died.

Earlier this year Mrs Omoregie had given up hope it would happen and allowed Hull Council to make the arrangements. But when a date was fixed she wanted to make it a fitting event for the woman who had shown her own so much love.

Mrs Omoregie said: “She looked after children for other people as well without receiving payment. Grace was not perfect, but will be remembered for her kindness and goodness, as no one is perfect.”

Infirmary bid to reassure families

Hull Royal Infirmary sought to reassure families yesterday that procedures for identifying bodies in its mortuary were “robust.”

Chief executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust Phil Morley said there had been a full review over the weekend.

He said: “All bodies upon release have to be correctly identified and signed out by both mortuary staff and those taking responsibility for the body.”

The hospital says the mistake came to light last Friday, when staff prepared to release the body for burial, prior to the funeral.

The suggestion is that the mistake must have occurred in 2000, when Christopher Alder’s body was released for his funeral.