Greek grave dug up after ‘cries for help’

Officials order tests on body of 49-year-old woman who relatives believe came out of a coma after being buried

The Guardian, Helena Smith in Athens, Friday 26 September 2014

Flowers on a grave. Photograph: Alamy

Greek authorities have ordered tests on the body of a woman who is reported to have woken in her grave and cried for help, only to die before she could be disinterred.

Three people laying flowers at an adjacent grave reported hearing banging and muffled shouts late on Thursday.

Alerted, gravediggers at the cemetery in the northern town of Perraia frantically began extracting the coffin but by the time the body had been removed doctors who had rushed to the scene pronounced the woman dead.

“When the ambulance arrived, gravediggers were still throwing dirt off the grave. As soon as the body was exhumed a cardiogram was conducted that confirmed the woman was dead,” Chrissi Matsikoudi, the emergency services doctor who examined the corpse, was quoted as saying.

“The body was in a state of rigor mortis … it is impossible that only a short time before the deceased had been crying for help when we found her in [that] state,” she said. “Her eyes, it is true, were open but the coroner can give an explanation for that. As far as her mouth is concerned, I cannot say it was open, it was relaxed.”

Witnesses reported seeing the body of the unidentified woman with her arms raised, and told the Greek media they believed she had died of asphyxiation.

The 49-year-old mother-of-two had been buried in a funeral attended by family members barely an hour before. She had been declared dead earlier in the day by doctors at a private clinic in nearby Thessaloniki, northern Greece’s capital. “A cardiogram has rendered it certain that the patient above is no longer alive,” concluded a medical announcement released to the press.

But Nikos Dialynas, a lawyer representing the woman’s family, said his clients believed she had come out of a coma after being buried. The relatives were now considering filing a complaint against the physicians who had treated her.

“We have the testimonies of three people, who are not related to the deceased and which are serious and very concrete [in detail],” he said. “They include an employee who worked at the cemetery. They hadn’t escaped from some psychiatric hospital nor were they [suffering], optically or acoustically, from delusions. What they say is very plain, very clear.”

Police contacted by the Guardian said the forensic pathologist, Fotis Hadzinicolaou, would conduct an autopsy to determine the exact time of the woman’s death. “A second coroner will also be present for reasons of impartiality,” said a police officer in Thessaloniki. “This is the first time in living memory that a body has been exhumed because, rightfully or wrongfully, the person is believed not to have died. It is a very particular case and we have launched an investigation.”