If parts of a dismembered (human) corpse are found and buried, what happens if other parts are found later? (is an exhumation carried out in order to add the extra bits and rebury the [more complete] corpse?)
Does it make any difference whichextra bits are found? (i.e. part of a finger vs the entire head or torso) - if so, who decides?
I’ve been waiting for someone to answer this. One of our customers here (an answering service) is the owner/mortician of a funeral home. If no one else responds, I’ll try to think of a reason to page him and ask him while I have him on the phone.
WAG here, but pragmatism tells me this probably is not an issue all that much: I mean, if the body part of a missing loved one turns up, first of all it will be scoured (or whatever the proper verb is here) for forensic evidence, assuming a crime is involved. Secondly, crime or no, do you think you, as next of kin, would even get the option of having “the member” returned to you (as in a police officer saying “here you go, ma’am… my sympathies”—hands over cigar box)? [And this last question is not meant to sound obvious, Mangetout, I really am curious… do you all have any knowledge or guesses that this would really happen? My instincts say no.]
And lastly, assuming you DO get the option, would you really go to all the trouble (and expense) of burying it? I don’t think I would.
As to who decides, I would also speculate that agencies and other organizations that routinely deal with these sorts of things (police departments, plane crash clean up crews, and so forth) have some sort of a standard protocol for deciding whether or not to offer families the option… ie, torso+head=offer family option for burial, anything less just incinerate.
Boy I wrote much more here than is really seemly… I’m really not that morbid, honest.
The reason I asked is that I saw a TV programme about a girl who was killed and dismembered by a serial killer; they found most of her body, but not the head, obviously this was exceptionally distressing for the parents, the implication was that the search hadn’t finished, I just wondered what they would do if they find it (I assumed in this case, it would be the parents wish to exhume, and rebury)
No dice. I’m back at work, and the mortician is out of town in Kentucky at a horse show. I’d really like to know the answer too.
A HORSE SHOW? Dismemberment?? Oh, I can’t help myself !!!
**[Sam Wolz]
[/Sam Wolz]**
Poor man awoke to find a dismembered horse’s head in his bed. AAaaah, Khartum, Khartum…
Sure. He’s at a horse show. Uh huh…
I’ve been waiting all day to find out the answer to this question.
I’m dying to know, now.
…is…anybody…out…there…?