Grave exhumed in body mix-up inquiry

The family of black former paratrooper Christopher Alder, 37, thought they had buried him in the plot in Northern Cemetery following a high-profile funeral in 2000, but his corpse was discovered in a mortuary last November when relatives of Grace Kamara, a 77-year-old Nigerian woman, arrived at the facility to collect her body for burial.

Mrs Kamara, who died of natural causes at her home in Hull in 1999, could not be found and it is suspected she was buried in Mr Alder’s grave by mistake after the wrong body was released to his family 12 years ago.

The ashes of Mr Alder’s niece Laura were scattered over the grave following her death in 2006 at the age of 25, adding to her family’s distress now.

Mr Alder died in Humberside Police custody in 1998 and because of the sensitivities between the force and his family, Chief Constable Tim Hollis, who took over Humberside in 2005, asked South Yorkshire Police to conduct the criminal inquiry into the burial blunder.

The cemetery will be cordoned off and closed to the public during the exhumation, which is expected to begin at 8pm with the removal of the soil beginning at midnight.

The remains will be taken by hearse to the Medico Legal Centre in Sheffield for identification tests.

Hull Council, which ran the mortuary in question in 2000, may have to apply to the Ministry of Justice for an amended exhumation licence as the current document states the remains are to be re-interred in Hull’s Eastern Cemetery, which would be contrary to the wishes of Mrs Kamara’s family, who would prefer her to be reburied in the same plot if the remains are hers.