It's in two parts, as it was published
I might be super sensitive, or maybe I've been thinking about similar tragedies in the making too much lately.. but the sad report below made me cry.
His was a life frozen in time
28 June 2007
Alex Eliseev (The Star)
We don't know his name. We may never know it. But at 3.10am yesterday he became known as "Body No 1266/07".
While snow fell over Johannesburg, police found the man lying dead on the corner of Noord and Wanderers streets in downtown Joburg.
He had frozen to death.
Later, Emergency Management Services said in a statement: "A yet-to-be identified homeless man died near the Noord Street taxi rank in the early hours."
A man's entire life summed up in one sentence.
But what we do know is that he suffered from pneumonia and emphysema, and was probably a heavy smoker.
We know he was 1,7m tall but weighed just 42kg. Forensic pathologists conducting the postmortem concluded he was underweight. Describing him, they wrote: "Neglected. No injuries".
We know the man was wearing a brown sweater and a black jacket. Lice were found in his armpits, his clothes bore traces of leaves.
The first police officer, filling out the report, guessed the man's age as about 70. A second officer was kinder - he put him at about 50.
In the "full name" section of the report a single word: "unknown".
His full history is described in five words: "Found dead on the street".
By midday an autopsy at the Johannesburg Mortuary was done and the homeless man was placed inside cold room No 40 - along with dozens of other bodies.
This will be his home until a family member comes to identify him, until police track down his relatives or he is buried in a pauper's grave.
Police reports show the man had no money and no possessions.
On the death scene form, police wrote that death, it seemed, was caused by "cold weather and rain".
Technically speaking, the man was sick and the freeze which has gripped the city exacerbated his condition until he could fight it no more.
The autopsy found both lungs were a dark colour - because of the diseases.
And that's where the trail ends.
We don't know how he landed up on the street.
We don't know where he was born, whether he once had a wife and children or how he lived.
But we do know how he died. Frozen. Cause of death: "Pneumonia. (Natural)."
While snow fell over Johannesburg, police found the man lying dead on the corner of Noord and Wanderers streets in downtown Joburg.
He had frozen to death.
Later, Emergency Management Services said in a statement: "A yet-to-be identified homeless man died near the Noord Street taxi rank in the early hours."
A man's entire life summed up in one sentence.
But what we do know is that he suffered from pneumonia and emphysema, and was probably a heavy smoker.
We know he was 1,7m tall but weighed just 42kg. Forensic pathologists conducting the postmortem concluded he was underweight. Describing him, they wrote: "Neglected. No injuries".
We know the man was wearing a brown sweater and a black jacket. Lice were found in his armpits, his clothes bore traces of leaves.
The first police officer, filling out the report, guessed the man's age as about 70. A second officer was kinder - he put him at about 50.
In the "full name" section of the report a single word: "unknown".
His full history is described in five words: "Found dead on the street".
By midday an autopsy at the Johannesburg Mortuary was done and the homeless man was placed inside cold room No 40 - along with dozens of other bodies.
This will be his home until a family member comes to identify him, until police track down his relatives or he is buried in a pauper's grave.
Police reports show the man had no money and no possessions.
On the death scene form, police wrote that death, it seemed, was caused by "cold weather and rain".
Technically speaking, the man was sick and the freeze which has gripped the city exacerbated his condition until he could fight it no more.
The autopsy found both lungs were a dark colour - because of the diseases.
And that's where the trail ends.
We don't know how he landed up on the street.
We don't know where he was born, whether he once had a wife and children or how he lived.
But we do know how he died. Frozen. Cause of death: "Pneumonia. (Natural)."
Dying cold and alone
09 July 2007
Alex Eliseev (The Star)
Twelve days ago, when snow fell on the city for the first time in 26 years, the dead body of a homeless man was found on a Joburg pavement.Despite a picture of the man and a plea by The Star for someone to come forward and identify him, his body remains in the city mortuary.
Not a single family member has come forward to identify Body No 1266/07.
Not once has police Inspector Mongezi Ngubane's phone rang in connection with the identity of the neglected stranger who died of pneumonia on June 27.
But the search for his identity will continue this week when mortuary workers will send a set of his fingerprints to the police's criminal records centre in Pretoria.
The prints will also be checked against Home Affairs records, and the results will be known in a week.
If there is no match, a small "p" - for pauper - will be scribbled in the mortuary's ledger next to the body number. The letter will almost certainly mean a dead end in the search to replace the number with a name.
In the first two weeks of August, the body will be taken to a cemetery in Elandsfontein. There it will be buried in a pauper's grave, with only a number to remember a man's entire existence.
All his secrets - where he was born, whether he was a father and a husband, and how he lived his life - will be locked away in his cheap coffin.
His entire life is currently summed up in a police report: "Found dead on the street".
Ngubane has been on leave for a week, and there is no progress in the police's search for the man's identity.
Meanwhile, The Star's readers have been touched by the story. One man has offered a R1 000 donation to make the homeless man's burial more dignified. But mortuary rules say such a donation cannot be received until there is a positive identification.
The homeless man, aged between 50 and 70, died on the corner of Noord and Wanderers streets in downtown Joburg. No photographs were taken at the scene, and a postmortem showed the man suffered from pneumonia and emphysema. Lice were found under his armpits.
Anyone with information can call Inspector Ngubane on 011-497-7280.
http://www.iol.za.org/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=vn20070709001024260C150808
1 comment:
Keep up the good work,keep blogging, show these wonderful peoples faces to the world, noone should end there lives as "Body no 1266/07".
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