Corpses Discovered in Spain Home

Atlanta Journal-Constitution ^ | 03-19-02 | Kennesaw

[Kennesaw]

Corpses Discovered in Spain Home

By JEROME SOCOLOVSKY Associated Press Writer

MADRID, Spain (AP)--The discovery of at least 19 corpses--some dead for a decade--in the home and car of a former funeral parlor employee could shed new light on thousands of cases of cremation fraud in Spain, authorities said Tuesday.

Police found the remains Monday after the 40-year-old suspect, who worked until last year as a driver for a local funeral home, was stopped at a random road check in the town of Ardales, 250 miles south of Madrid.

Six skulls and a number of bones were packed inside industrial-size garbage bags in the trunk, and the suspect was apparently on his way to get rid of them, said spokesman Bernardo Molto of Spain's Civil Guard police force.

Investigators went to the suspect's home and found the remains of at least 13 more bodies in garbage bags on an outdoor patio.

According to preliminary investigations, the remains had been in his possession for at least four years, Molto said.

The suspect, a resident of Malaga in southern Spain, was identified only by his initials, F.E.B. He was to be arraigned on charges of illegal interment, police said.

Malaga's chief prosecutor, Manuel Villen, said the discovery could provide new evidence in the trial of seven defendants, including the manager and an employee of a public cemetery, accused of fraud in 3,000 cremation cases in Malaga province.

The case came to light in 1997 after police discovered the remains of about 50 people in one of the defendants' homes.

Hearings in the case had ended, and a ruling had been expected in the next few months.

``But if a link is proved, the court that conducted the trial would have to hold new hearings,'' Villen told the national news agency, Efe.

Molto said police believe the two cases are related because until a few months ago, the suspect detained on Monday worked for Funesur, a funeral parlor that had been investigated as part of the trial.

The Malaga case resembled the ghastly discovery in the United States earlier this year of hundreds of bodies stacked in pits, caskets and aboveground vaults of a family crematory business in Noble, Ga.

In Malaga, authorities believe the motive was profit. Prosecutors said the bereaved were given ashes of random people after cremations that were charged at about one-seventh the going rate.

In addition to jail sentences for the defendants, the prosecution has demanded $1.76 million in compensation for the families, according to Efe.

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[dead]

Copycatting Euro-trash.

We are such trend-setters in this country.

[metesky]

When my mother died in '73, Pa told us to go back to the house and welcome our relatives, friends and neighbors while he went to the crematoium to, "make sure those b*stards do their job."

He was (and still is) a realist.

[denydenydeny]

We are such trend-setters in this country.

Luckily I was not drinking anything when I read that line...

[Ward Smythe]

Will the funeral home charge my family less for just getting dumped out the back with the rest of the corpses?

I'm beginning to think "Hefty bag. Landfill."