The Makuya police are investigating a case of dealing in human tissue after a headless body was exhumed, following the vandalization of a grave at Makuya-Domboni east of Thohoyandou.

The exhumation was conducted on Saturday, after the family sought police intervention to investigate the mystery surrounding the vandalised grave. The police exhumed the body of the deceased, Dakalo Lambani, who was buried on August 21, following her death from an unspecified sickness.

The horrific discovery was made by community members. The deceased’s sister, Phumudzo, said they buried her sister in a dignified manner and they even checked the following day and found that everything was fine. She said they were shocked to learn from community members that there were signs that the grave had been tampered with. “We went to the graveyard and found that it was true that something had happened to the grave, but we did not expect to see what we saw,” she said.

She said they became worried that something bad could have happened to their loved one and they decided to report the matter to the police, while at the same seeking an order to exhume the body. “We were granted the order to exhume the body and our suspicions were raised when we saw a jersey she had been wearing was no longer on her body,” she said.

She added that, on digging further, the family received a further shock when the body was found in a sitting position in an open coffin, which was not the one they had used. To add more shock, the family also found an unfamiliar "kind of muti" all over the grave. When the body was finally taken out of the grave,some parts, including her genitals, were found to be missing.

The body was taken to Tshilidzini Hospital for an investigation. “We are very bitter about what happened. We gave my sister a decent funeral, with all her parts intact, but she now has some of her parts missing. How are we going to rebury her with some of her parts missing, not knowing what had happened to them,” she complained.

She said the person or people who had done the ghastly deed should be found and punished. “We are not pointing fingers and we would like to see the police doing their job, making sure that the perpetrators are arrested and face the full might of the law,” she said.

Makuya police spokesperson WO Mashudu Madida confirmed the incident and the subsequent exhumation of the body. “We can confirm the incident and that we had acted on the instructions of the family and exhumed the body,” he said.

According to him, they have opened violation of body charges and investigations are continuing. He said preliminary investigations had revealed that the body had been tampered with, that the coffin had been removed and some body parts were indeed found to be missing.

He urged members of the community with information to please forward it the police, so that they are able to crack the case. At time of going to press, no one had been arrested yet in connection with the case.

Grave desecration is uncommon in these parts of the country. Some believe that the body parts that were removed might have been used for muti purposes. With so many mysterious disappearances and unsolved killings in the area, some believe the deceased might have fallen victim to muti merchants.