Videos of an Eastern Cape woman named Busisiwe Mvimbani have gone viral after she made claims that the body of her daughter has been swapped.
On Monday, Mvimbani went live on her Facebook account and started sobbing about the treatment she has been receiving at the Butterworth forensic pathology services, looking for her daughter, who went missing in 2022.
Claimed ancestors told her the body’s at the mortuary
In the video, she said she has been shown two bodies that were labelled to be matching with her daughter’s. However, she informed them that they were the wrong bodies.
“These people are taking advantage of me. I have been quiet this whole time. These people are cruel, my ancestors told me that they would swap the bodies,” she said crying.
She further shared that she tried to remain calm but the forensic employees keep abusing her.
“That was not my child’s body, that body was still fresh and it was bigger.”
Department claims it followed all processes
The Eastern Cape Department of Health said they sympathise with Mvimbani, who has been searching for her daughter since 2022.
“We want the family to be able to move on from their loved one. A case was opened with the SAPS by the family in 2022. And finding the missing person is the subject of the SAPS investigations. The SAPS indicated that there were bodies that they collected from various scenes. Those bodies could possibly match the description of the missing daughter,” said Dr Rolene Wagner, the department’s HOD.
Wagner said they liaised with their Forensic Pathology Service in Butterworth. They brought Mvimbani to their unit to view the bodies on two occasions. This was during, April 28 and May 13 2022.
“Mvinbani viewed the bodies and she reported that these were not that of her missing daughter. In 2023, Mavimbi came back to our unit saying that she was convinced her child is at the mortuary. The bodies were all frozen. We followed the procedure to defrost the bodies and the process of viewing the bodies was conducted. Again, Mvimbani indicated that none of the bodies in storage was that of her missing daughter.”
DNA samples taken from mother
According to Wegner, in addition to the viewing, DNA samples were taken from Mvimbani. These will be tested against the two bodies from Willowvale on Monday.
“This is done in collaboration with the SAPS, who will dispatch the samples to the laboratory for DNA testing. The results will be shared by SAPS, in line with their protocols. As part of their investigations of the case, the result will be shared directly with Mvimbani as soon as they are available. This… so that she can have closure.”
The police said a case to find the body of her missing daughter remains open.
