Man caught allegedly emptying, tampering with graves in Serowe

Bonte Seepi | Thursday October 23, 2014 17:06

Serowe Police Station Commander Patrick Mbikiwa confirmed the incident to Mmegi yesterday. He said the incident was reported on Friday and the suspect arrested the same day.

 Due to the oddness of this act, the police took the man for mental assessment on Tuesday and are still awaiting results.

Mbikwa explained that when they arrived at the graveyard they noticed that one grave had been dug out and emptied while four others appeared to have been tampered with.

“Only one grave was dug out but the corpse and coffin were still intact. The other four had evidently been tampered with,” he said.

The police informed the families of the deceased persons about the incident. They met the families at the cemetery last Saturday.

 Mbikwa said they allowed the families to exhume the buried to assess whether the corpses had been fiddled with.

He said they had not established the suspect’s motives, adding that the targeted graves were all new ones.

Mbikwa said this was the first incident of its kind to be reported to them this year. He appealed to members of the public to regularly check on their family members’ graves to avoid incidents of this nature recurring. Mbikwa also discouraged people from exhuming remains at graveyards, as this was not only unlawful but brought pain to the deceased’s families.

He said he could not reveal the names of the suspect, as police investigations are ongoing.