Two men, who allegedly stole the corpse of an elderly man at the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital’s mortuary have been granted bail in the sum of GHc 30,000 each, with two sureties each by the Tarkwa Circuit Court.
The accused persons are John Asante, 37, a mortuary attendant at the Tarkwa Municipal Hospital, and Seth Owusu, 48, a fridge mechanic at Atonsu-Bokro, a suburb of Kumasi.
A third suspect, Efo Kwesi, is on the run.
The two pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit crime and stealing.
The Prosecutor, Chief Inspector Faustina Celestina Anaman, told the court, presided over by Emmanuel Bart-Plange Brew that, the complainant, John Kofi Tenge, a farmer, resides at Wassa Tintinum, near Aboso.
She said on May 22, 2017, the complainant’s father, John Kwaku Tenge, aged 112, passed away and the family members deposited his body at the Tarkwa Municipal hospital’s mortuary for preservation.
According to records, Inspector Anaman said the body was given C-217 as its identification number, and the complainant paid a regular visit at the mortuary to check on his late father’s body.
On November 22, 2017, the complainant saw his late father’s body, and paid all the bills incurred for it to be prepared and buried on November 25.
On November 24 at 1:00pm, the complainant and other family members went to the mortuary to retrieve the corpse, but it was missing.
She said authorities of the hospital were informed immediately and a search was conducted at the mortuary but the body was not found.
Chief Inspector Anaman said the complainant and hospital authorities reported the case at the Tarkwa Police Station on the same day, and the police proceeded to the morgue with both parties, but the missing body was still not available.
The police then arrested John and five of his colleagues who were workers at the hospital’s morgue for questioning.
During interrogation, the Prosecutor said John admitted the offense and mentioned the names of Seth and Efo as his accomplices.
According to Chief Inspector Anaman, John claimed that on November 15, 2017, Seth promised to give him an ambulance if he provided him an elderly man’s body.
She said John further noted that on November 24 at 2:30 am, the accused person and the suspect sent a man with a blue black Pick-Up to collect the body for them.
Chief Inspector Anaman said Seth was arrested on November 28 at Asafo Market in Kumasi, and brought to Tarkwa Police Station to assist in investigations.
She said that the second accused has since denied the offense, and the suspect at large is yet to be arrested.
