Coroner: 49-year-old woman was dead when she was buried in Thessaloniki
A coroner rebutted on Friday night allegations of the relatives of a woman who they claimed was buried alive on Thursday afternoon in Perea cemetery in Thessaloniki.
The autopsy was conducted after reports to the family alleged that screams were heard at the tomb soon after burial.
The autopsy performed on the body of the 49-year-old woman, a cancer patient at the final stages of the disease, confirmed she died on Thursday morning in a private clinic, as it was originally diagnosed.
The procedure was performed by coroner Fotios Hatzinikolaou, in the presence of two more coroners representing the family, Matthaios Tsougas and Samuel Ndungu-Njau, as well as a technical advisor of the private clinic which issued the death certificate, the European Interbalkan Medical Centre.
"There’s not even the slightest chance she woke up. A person who had been buried with gauzes in her mouth couldn’t have talked or screamed,” Tsougas said after the autopsy was completed, adding all coroners agreed there’s no way the woman could have died from asphyxiation.
