R100,000 worth of jewellery ‘lost’ in mortuary

Jewellery worth R100,000 cannot be found after it was removed from the body of a woman at the Salt River Mortuary in Cape Town.

Shavonne Miller told CapeTalk radio on Tuesday that she was “livid”.

The mortuary received the body of her mother‚ Barbara Carolus‚ a few weeks ago and efforts to locate her jewellery since then have been unsuccessful.

“When the family members arrived to identify Barbara’s body… all her belongings had been apparently secured and booked in at the mortuary. However‚ they were not available to us at the time‚” she said.

“So we had to return on the Monday to collect the items. Barbara loved jewelery‚ diamonds‚ gold‚ it was just what she enjoyed. When we went back on the Monday they struggled to find it. They confirmed it had been received but for some reason it was so-called lost.”

Miller said the family had opened a criminal case with the police while the health department has confirmed that a formal investigation had been implemented.

Robert Daniels‚ provincial spokesman for Emergency Medical and Forensic Pathology Services‚ told TMG Digital that‚ “when the incident became known to facility management an internal investigation was launched‚ this included interview of staff regarding the missing property with the hope that the property may have been negligently misplaced or numbered incorrectly”.

“The facility was also searched in hope of finding the missing property but to no avail.”

He said that management at Salt River had done a preliminary investigation into the missing property and all the necessary information would be given to the Saps investigating officer.

“Furthermore‚ a formal departmental investigation has been implemented. The staff involved all work shifts and interviewing them is not always possible and therefore has taken some time‚” said Daniels.

He said the family had been advised by the facility manager to open a case at the Woodstock Saps. “The department is not aware of any other such incident taking place at Salt River Mortuary in the past.”