Suspected human bones and a coffin found behind a false wall in Slatina cemetery chapel
Workers renovating a cemetery chapel in Slatina, Romania, found bags of suspected human bones and a coffin behind a false wall, and police opened a new criminal case for desecration of corpses or graves. Digi24 reported on Tuesday, 13 October, that more than 20 bags had been found.
Bags found behind a false wall
On Monday, 12 October, at about 12:30, a call to the 112 emergency number reported several bags holding bones and a coffin behind a wall inside a chapel in the Strehareți cemetery in Slatina. The discovery was made by workers doing cleaning and renovation work in the chapel's basement. They noticed a hole the size of a fist in a basement wall and asked the Olt water company for help. A camera normally used to inspect pipes showed a coffin with several black plastic bags beneath it. Mayor Mario De Mezzo said his initial estimate was at least three to five bags.
In a Facebook post, the mayor described what he had seen:
In the chapel of the Strehareți cemetery, behind a false wall, I found black plastic bags hidden IN the wall, covered by what appears to be a coffin. We don't know what they contain, we can only imagine - human bones.
Police open a new case
The Olt County Police Inspectorate (IPJ Olt) said the bags were in a new location, separate from the pit investigated earlier, so a new criminal case was opened for desecration of corpses or graves. Spokesman Claudiu Șerban said the wall had not yet been removed, so officials had not confirmed what the bags contained. The investigation is supervised by the prosecutor assigned to the Slatina court. By Tuesday, 13 October, criminalists had been at the chapel basement for more than three hours. Some bones had already been taken to the Institute of Legal Medicine, and the rest were to follow for expert examination. Digi24 reported more than 20 bags and a coffin on Tuesday, a higher count than the mayor's earlier estimate.
- A 112 call reports several bags of bones and a coffin behind a wall in a cemetery chapel
- IPJ Olt opens a new criminal case for desecration of corpses or graves
- Criminalists spend more than three hours in the chapel basement, and some bones are taken to the Institute of Legal Medicine
Dispute behind the cemetery
The Strehareți cemetery has been at the centre of a conflict between the Slatina city hall and the private firm that ran it for about 16 years. The municipality took over administration after a lengthy court dispute. In September, the mayor said investigators had found bags with unrotted bodies from the COVID period, and he held a press conference among the graves. He accused the former administrator and the Olt County Council leadership, and asked police and prosecutors not to 'whitewash' the case. According to ProTV, a false crypt holding 20 bodies was found at the edge of the cemetery in September. Digi24 reported that dozens of bags of human bones were found in two other places in the cemetery that month. The former administrator disputed the accusations, according to Mediafax.
What remains unconfirmed
Authorities have not established how the remains came to be behind the wall. Local authorities suggest the find may be linked to how the cemetery was run in the past, when a former owner allegedly resold burial vaults that already held people, and many remains were later dug up and the plots sold again. Police and prosecutors are to verify this hypothesis. The mayor said some remains may have been removed from graves and moved without following regulations. He said the wall, built from a single row of bricks under fragile plaster, could be demolished quickly.
