It has been a month since three corpses went missing at a funeral parlour in Kuruman, Northern Cape.
Police have put up a reward of R100 000 to any individual who can assist with the arrest and conviction of the perpetrator or perpetrators and the recovery of the bodies.
According to police who are conducting the search and investigation in Kimberley, the three bodies — two adult males and one female infant, were stolen from a funeral parlour in Kuruman on March 17, 2025, at approximately 1.30am.
Police offer reward
On Friday, Colonel Cherelle Ehlers said the detectives from the Provincial Serious and Violent Crimes Unit are still diligently looking into this heist.
“All information will be handled confidentially and can be relayed to Lieutenant Colonel Doggy Magugu 082 469 0578 or the SAPS Crime Stop number 08600 10111, or alternatively via the MySAPS App,” said Ehlers.
In December 2024, a family in Wattville, east of Johannesburg, could not bury their deceased mother. This after they discovered that a well known funeral parlour mistakenly cremated her, a few days before her funeral.
When the family went to the parlour to collect the body, they were told she had mistakenly been cremated.
Funeral parlour admitted to the error
The funeral parlour has admitted to the error and has offered to compensate the family.
The funeral parlour’s executive head, Isaac Mamotsau, apologised to the family.
Mamotsau said after an internal investigation, they discovered the source of the mishap. He said the tags used to identify the deceased were mixed up by the morticians.
“Our investigations revealed the greatest mistake, an error. We apologise for what occurred. When we removed the bodies from the cold rooms for the preparations, the tags on the body were actually removed.
“The bodies went for the preparations and the tags remained in the cold rooms. And when we returned the bodies to the cold rooms the tags were mixed up. The tag that was meant for body cremation was placed on a body that was not meant to be cremated.”
