A funeral director with three decades of experience has reported a disturbing incident where a family allegedly tampered with a deceased person's body during a private viewing.
Esther Swanborough, who runs Swanborough Funerals in Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, Australia, stated that she and her team were preparing for a viewing on Friday. According to Queensland Police, around 1 p.m. that day, two men and a woman arrived to view the body of a deceased man known to them.
Police allege that one of the men interfered with the corpse before fleeing the scene. He was arrested several hours later, while the other man and woman were taken into custody at the funeral home. Swanborough described the event as premeditated and shocking.
"When we realised what had occurred, we rang the police immediately. It was a shocking event for all of our team," Swanborough told the Daily Mail. She added that she had stepped out of the room to allow the family privacy, at which point they allegedly claimed "We have our cultural reasons." However, Swanborough disputed this, stating, "This had nothing to do with culture. This was something very different."
Swanborough, who has been a funeral director for 30 years, said she confronted the individuals when she returned to the room. "As funeral directors, we are good at reading people. I realised something untoward [appeared to be] going on," she stated. "What happened is not acceptable, morally or ethically. I have been a funeral director for 30 years and I have never experienced anything like this."
A 47-year-old man, a 38-year-old man, and a 43-year-old woman have been charged with entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence, being armed with intent to enter a premises and commit an indictable offence, and misconduct with a corpse. They are scheduled to appear in the Brisbane Magistrates Court.
