A man has been arrested for removing his mother’s body from her grave in a Spanish cemetery and carrying her coffin home in his car.
Today, after spending a night in a police cell, he told an investigating judge that he just wanted to check that she was really gone because her death three days earlier had occurred so suddenly.
After his arrest yesterday, a psychiatrist examined him and concluded that there were no grounds to admit him to hospital and ruled that he could be taken to court.
The surreal episode occurred yesterday between 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. in the municipal cemetery of La Carriona, in the Asturian town of Avilés.
Witnesses reported to a local priest after the dead woman’s adult son headed to the funerary niche where she had been buried shouting that she had been taken from her home “without permission.”
He then proceeded to remove the flowers from the grave and put her tombstone in the ground before smashing a brick partition protecting the coffin and dragging it to his car parked nearby.
It is said that the surprised spectators tried to dissuade him from his extraordinary action. But he reportedly reacted by asking them for help before placing the coffin in the trunk of the vehicle, where he had already lowered the rear seats to fit it, and driving the three kilometers to his home with it.
Police found him and his mother dead on the property, still in his coffin, and arrested him before returning the coffin to the cemetery so it could be returned to its final resting place.
A man has been arrested for removing his mother’s body from her grave in a Spanish cemetery (pictured) and carrying her coffin home in his car.
The surreal episode occurred yesterday between 1 and 3 p.m. in the municipal cemetery of La Carriona (in the photo) in the Asturian town of Avilés.
Shortly after, a judge ordered its second removal, this time with a court order, and ordered police to formally identify who was inside and take photographs to check for damage to the body.
The woman’s bearded son, referred to only by his initials RAD, was photographed in the local press around midday today being led into court in handcuffs and flanked by two armed police officers.
He was released about an hour later after being questioned by a judge and told he could visit his mother in the cemetery where her body was removed yesterday.
But he was also warned that he remains under investigation and could end up being accused of serious desecration.
He declined to comment as he left the Avilés court with his lawyer.
It was not immediately clear why his mother had died or how old she was when she died.