IN JAMAICA (CRAZY STORY): Man's body still lying in funeral parlour for 7 years amid money row.....Man said to have died leaving over JA$55 million. the body of a Jamaican who is believed to have served as a pilot in the British Navy has been locked away in storage at a funeral parlour in downtown Kingston.

BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Sunday Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com  Sunday, October 05, 2014    

FOR approximately seven years the body of a Jamaican who is believed to have served as a pilot in the British Navy has been locked away in storage at a funeral parlour in downtown Kingston.

Doubt still surrounds when the man will finally be laid to rest, and speculation is that a legal procedure will have to be used to settle the issue.

The director of the funeral parlour holding the body, Michael Jones, claimed that he is planning to take legal action against the dead man's family to recover millions of dollars he said are owed to him for storage of the body.

Jones claimed that for the past seven years he has been left waiting on family members to bring the necessary documents and payments to allow him to proceed with the burial, but they have failed to complete the transaction.

"The man died in 2007 and we made contact with family members," Jones told the Jamaica Observer, adding that after a series of discussions, burial preparations began.

"The preparations were placed on hold as we had to wait on the burial order and other documents to allow for us to proceed," Jones told the Sunday Observer.

He said that, despite the discussions, the family members failed to complete their end of the procedure.

Jones claimed that, at the time, family members requested that the man be buried and promised that payments would be made at a later date. But he said he refused to do that.

Jones said that, in the past, he had encountered cases where people were unable to pay for funeral expenses and he offered to cover the costs.

He said if that was the case in this instance he would have had no problem taking that route.

However, he said he was told that the man died leaving millions of dollars in both cash and assets to family members, to which they have access.

"Information we received is that the man passed away leaving more than $40 million and at least two properties valued at close to $15 million, and left instructions that funds should be used from his assets to cover his funeral expenses," the funeral director said. more