Clerk’s slip up delays post mortem

By CLIFFORD FAIPARIK
POLICE have found that an Alotau District Court clerk’s blunder has caused the body of an 86-year-old woman’s body to be left in the mortuary for more than eight months.
Acting Southern police commander Asst Comm John Maru said investigations into an alleged police killing Rodha Dick were stalled because the clerk failed to serve the court order on the police for a second post-mortem.
“The coroner had issued the order on March 7 but the clerk failed to serve the order, and instead just filed the documents,” he added.
Rodha was shot dead on Dec 6 in a shooting and the torching of 18 houses incident linked to a police manhunt for killers and robbers led by Papua New Guinea’s most notorious wanted man, Tommy Maeva Baker.
The grandmother, whose body has been lying in the Alotau Hospital mortuary, was on the verandah of her Kitava settlement compound home when she was hit by a bullet.
Rodha’s case was brought to the limelight when her children and villagers found their courage to speak up on the incident to The National last month.
“That’s when the court order was discovered as ‘not served’. This was an administrative breakdown,” Maru said.
“So we have corrected it and the second autopsy is expected to be conducted this week.”
He said that he had gone to Alotau to conduct an investigation into the case after relatives went to The National to express their disappointment of the delay in conducting the second post-mortem.
“Since arriving here two weeks ago, I have talked to relatives, and the police forensic officers.
“I was told that there was a first post-mortem done on Dec 14,” he said.
“But Rodha’s children were not satisfied with the way autopsy was done and demanded a second one.
“Also, the doctor carried out the first post-mortem had left for another province. So, another doctor will conduct the second post-mortem.”
Maru said apart from determining who caused the death of Rodha, “I will have to talk to other victims who have alleged that police burned down their houses.
An 11-year-old boy, Roy Digeida, who escaped in the nick of time by breaking through the wall, suffered third degree burns on his body.
Digeida suffered but he is getting medical treatment and undergoing skin surgeries.