MP/AL activates IML and joins forces to solve problems related to the burial of 284 bodies and bones

The Alagoas Public Ministry (MPAL), aiming to guarantee citizens’ rights and also their dignity, decided to collect more in-depth information about bodies and bones kept at the Legal Medical Institute (IML) of Maceió and the real need for inhumations in the capital of Alagoas. After an inspection carried out by the 62nd Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Capital (for External Control of Police Activity) of the aforementioned Scientific Police unit, an emergency meeting took place between the bodies with the participation of the coordination of the Alagoas Missing Persons Location and Identification Program (PLID /AL) for the adoption of resolution strategies in relation to the disposal, at least on an emergency basis, of the bodies already identified. In total, at the moment, the IML has 284 bodies that have already been autopsied.

The head of the Public Prosecutor’s Office for External Control, prosecutor Karla Padilha, draws attention to the problem.

“When we noticed the high number of corpses and bones at the IML, some of which had been accommodated for more than ten years, this meeting was held with me, Dr. Marluce and the director of the institute so that data could be crossed and, in this way, , to release, at first, the bodies whose names are on Plid’s search list”, says Karla Padilha.

The prosecutor emphasizes that storing corpses is not the responsibility of the IML, so the problem must be completely resolved, remembering that it becomes a public health case.

“This is a public health problem and it is not the role of the IML to accumulate corpses, but rather to carry out necroscopic reports and reports on the living to attest to the materiality of violent crimes against the person and also to identify perpetrators, if applicable.”

In response to the Letter from the 62nd Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Capital, the coroner and director of the Legal Medical Institute, Felipe Porciúncula, reported the existence of 78 bodies and another 46 bones from various areas of Maceió, in addition to another 51 bodies and plus 46 bones received from various municipalities in Alagoas.

As specified, the director of the capital’s IML adds another 64 bones stored in the period from 1998 to 2014 to the data, totaling 284 bodies and bones. According to him, this is due to the difficulty of computerized records.

“We emphasize that this entire quantity (284) of bodies/bones has already been autopsied, awaiting the necessary measures to be taken to ensure the effectiveness of the inhumation procedures, considering the emergency nature of the situation, as the accumulation of bodies poses health risks. public”, says Official Letter No. 45, signed by Felipe Porciúncula.

During the visit to the IML, the Public Prosecutor’s Office found that there was no cross-referencing between the data on the already identified and unclaimed corpses with the records contained in the Sinalid system. With this possibility of crossing, there is a chance that some of these already identified and unclaimed corpses correspond to some missing victims who are on the PLID/AL network list.

The prosecutor and coordinator of Plid, Marluce Falcão, talks about the importance of this mobilization and what it represents.

“At the request of the current director of the IML of Maceió, in operational support to the 62nd Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Capital, at the provocation of the public prosecutor Karla Padilha, the PLID/MPAL, receiving the necessary data, is carrying out the search for family members, starting from fingerprint identification of corpses in IML custody, which is carried out by the Alagoas Identification Institute. The work is complex and requires cooperation from other internal and external bodies, demanding the current situation, the immediate search for family members, requiring proactive action, in a network, with steps being taken in the database of the National System for Locating and Identification of Missing Persons – SINALID/CNMP, aiming to inhumate the bodies already identified”.

Need for vacancies at IML

In a letter sent to the coordinator of Maceió Cemeteries, Tarcísio Palmeira, the director of the IML highlights that according to a preliminary technical study, there is a need to inhumate 120 bodies, on average, at the IML. He emphasizes that as it takes three years to carry out an exhumation, it is extremely necessary to make 360 ​​drawers available for the definitive resolution of the situation in the long term.

At the moment, IML has 29 drawers at its disposal in the São Luiz Cemetery and another 70 in the São José Cemetery, in the Prado neighborhood, in Maceió.

“Therefore, there is a gap of 260 drawers to meet the needs of the Maceió IML. To ensure speed, he states in the letter that the space does not need to be large since burials are not carried out in coffins.