The UK might have given us great fictional detectives such as Sherlock Holmes and Jane Tennison, but even they would have trouble tracking down the bodies lost by the National Health Service. A study has found that over the past decade, 132 bodies were in some way mismanaged by the NHS. Funeral directors were sent the wrong body 25 times (and nine of them were buried or cremated), along with thirteen post-mortem “mix-ups.” Fifteen completely decomposed (often because of faulty refrigeration), seven were disfigured while being moved around the mortuary, and five were lost completely.
Here’s one case we could almost forgive a mistake. In Honolulu, Hawaii, a woman was accused of killing her twin sister. Time Magazine says the twins were seen having a “hair-pulling fight” over the steering wheel on the Hana Highway, a mountain road in Maui. They allege that Alexandria deliberately drove off the road, a 200 foot plunge that killed her sister, Anastasia. The defense tiptoes right up to the edge of blaming the victim, claiming that Alexandria’s deadly left turn was not deliberate, arguing in a delicate legalese that “it is probable that having the drivers’ head pulled firmly to the right from the pulling of her hair could have caused some erratic driving.” Neither side has explained what exactly they were arguing about.
Finally, Jo Place, an Australian undertaker, tells the Sydney Daily Telegraph about the ups and downs of her profession. The biggest change she’s seen is “people wanting to celebrate in a way that best suits the deceased. Some want classical music, others arrange to play AC/DC’s ‘Highway To Hell’.” Some families want to bring pets to the funeral, although she said one family took that a little too far when their late mother had a “cantankerous cat” no one wanted, so instead of finding a new home for the kitty, “they had it put down and placed in the coffin with her.”
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