An unidentified body has been abandoned in the morgue freezers of the Institute of Forensic Medicine for three years. Coroners have been unable to find any solution because there is no identity document by which the deceased can be identified by the police
It is about a man with an unknown identity, who was found in the town of Letcani. From the first investigations made by forensic doctors, the deceased person is approximately 60-70 years old. He arrived at IML Iasi on July 1, 2021, his death being violent.
For three years, forensic doctors at IML have been moving a body from one freezer to another
Once the body is identified, the next step is for the police to find out whether or not the deceased has relatives. Otherwise, addresses are made to the town hall of the locality of which the deceased person belongs, and the last step is the funeral.
In the case of the corpse that has been at the IML for about 3 years, the forensic doctors say that they also sent requests to the Prosecutor’s Office, from where they were told that further requests were made. However, even to this day they have not received an answer.
“According to the law, the bodies that the family cannot bury for financial reasons or that no longer have any relatives are buried by the town hall where they reside. This is an unknown corpse, brought from Letcani. He died in Letcani, but it is not known if he resided there. Many addresses were made to the Lețcani Police and they replied that, after they identify him, they will take him”, the representatives of the Institute of Forensic Medicine from Iași sent.
Medical examiners say it’s a complicated situation. Communication with the authorities is difficult even when it is about a deceased person whose identity is known. Until the authorities take the necessary steps to find out whether or not the deceased has relatives, it takes at least a month.
“For bodies with unknown identity, it takes a long time to identify them. To be buried, we need documents and to prove that she has no relatives. It is true that refrigerators are busy and we hope that there will be no more such cases, because it would be crazy. We have a contract with the town halls, we requested funds from the City Council and they were allocated to us, but if we do not have the identity of the body, we cannot do anything. It’s hard and when it comes to bodies whose identity we know, it takes at least a month to find out whether or not it has relatives. These steps are taken by the police, and we make addresses weekly”, add the representatives of the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Iași.
The mayor of Lețcani commune: “I don’t know anything about this body”
Although IML has made countless requests to the police, the town hall, the City Council and the Prosecutor’s Office, so far no solution has been found for this body that has been abandoned for about 3 years to be buried. As a result, that freezer is occupied, and the main problem is that it is not even known when it will be freed.
“I do not know anything about this body, nor was this case brought to my attention. Therefore, I do not know what it is about and whether the deceased person is from the Letcani commune. When there was talk of such a death, the authorities got in touch with the town hall and we buried him with the town hall’s money in a cemetery in Cucuteni, because there are not many places left in Lețcani”, pointed out Stelian Turcu, the mayor of the commune Letcani, Iasi county.
Such situations are among the dysfunctions at the IML, there were periods when the bodies piled up and no one came to claim them. However, forensic doctors state that this aspect is not yet worrying.
