Lyken/Newburg Funeral Home yesterday said that documents were forged to show that it shipped two bodies from Guyana and it accused Sandy’s Funeral Home of being behind the deception, a charge that owner of Sandy’s, Michael Sandy denies.
When contacted by this newspaper, Sandy said that he did not know anything about the matter and would have to check the records. He stated that he could not say anything at this point until the funeral home’s records were checked and reiterated that he was unaware of the matter. Sandy’s was said to have had possession of the two bodies prior to export.
The Lyken/Newburg Funeral Home is calling for tighter monitoring of bodies being shipped from here to other countries, following the discovery that forged documentation purporting to be from that funeral service was used to ship two bodies to the United States and Canada.
At a press conference yesterday, the funeral home said that it has documents, which proves that Sandy’s last had custody of the bodies. The two bodies were those of Calvin Souvenir, a US national, and Nazurdeen Shah, a Trinidadian, who had died here.
Recounting how she learnt of the forged documents, consultant at Lyken’s, Dr. Dawn Stewart told reporters that she was contacted last Thursday by a private investigator (PI) in the US, who informed her that she was conducting an investigation in reference to the remains of Souvenir which was “exported” to the US allegedly by Lyken’s on November 6 last year. It was not clear what triggered the investigation by the PI but it was stated that there were inconsistencies in the documents provided.
She said that the investigator requested documentation and information in relation to the exportation of Souvenir’s body. Stewart declared that Lyken’s at no point had custody of Souvenir’s remains or prepared the body for exportation to the US and this was confirmed after reviewing office records.
She said that the investigator sent over some documents, which bore the letterhead of the company, the company’s stamp and the signature of Managing Director of the company, Gordon Lyken. She noted that at this point, the company only knew about the case of Souvenir after being informed by the investigator.
“After closer investigation, it was noted that the signatures, stamps and letterheads used to process documents for Mr. Souvenir were forged”, she said.
Stewart noted that the Ministry of Health was contacted and then after a check was made it was learnt that Shah’s body was exported to Canada with documentation purporting to show that Lyken’s had handled the process. Stewart said that she was shocked upon learning of this as the company never handled the two bodies. She said that up to yesterday there was no information on Shah’s body but that was being pursued.
She revealed that the PI had contacted the funeral home in the US, who confirmed that they had received Souvenir’s body and there had been a funeral. She said that that among the documents provided was a receipt, purportedly issued by Sandy’s for $1.4M for the export of Souvenir’s body.
The woman said that she presented the ministry with documentation bearing the original signature of Gordon Lyken and from the documents in the ministry’s possession it was verified that the signature was not his and the letterhead was not the same.
Documents were provided that showed the remains of both bodies were checked by a named Guyanese Port Health Official, whose signature and stamp accompanied all the documents. According to Stewart, the official when confronted stated that he could not remember the funeral home he visited as he visited a number of them. She said that the procedure when a body was being shipped abroad was that the funeral home prepared documents while the Port Health Official goes to the funeral home to check and verify that the information was correct and signs the documents.
She said that investigations carried out by Lyken’s found that the Balwant Singh Hospital verified that Sandy’s Funeral Home picked up Souvenir’s body from that hospital.
“We take this as an extremely serious incident and reserve the right to seek counsel and pursue this matter to the fullest of the law”, she asserted. She said that she was going to report the matter to the police yesterday.
A letter that she read to the media, which was addressed to the Minister of Health from Lyken’s requested that the official be removed from the ministry’s staff and a full investigation be undertaken. It recommended that the ministry should change procedures for filing of documents for exportation and importation of human remains.
Additionally, the letter requested that all human remains for exportation must carry a verification stamp of the appropriate embassy prior to approval by the ministry for shipment of human remains. It proposed that all documents must be verified by another lawyer of the ministry with the funeral director or legal representative.
It also urged that all documents must bear the official seal and stamp of the funeral establishments and the ministry must randomly review exportation/importation documents for accuracy and legitimate signatures.
Meanwhile, Lyken said that around 10 bodies are shipped out by the company each year. He said that for all the years that he was in business he never experienced such an incident and expressed concern at the possible repercussions. “It is under our letterhead, the first thing they would do is contact us”, he stated.
Stewart noted that when she had spoken to the Health Minister he had promised an investigation.