BRAZIL: WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: When Rosangela Almeida dos Santos’ body was unearthed at a cemetery in Riachao das Neves, northeast Brazil, blood was discovered inside her coffin.
A woman buried alive by mistake is feared to have lay conscious inside her coffin for eleven days while trying to fight her way out.
Rosangela Almeida dos Santos, 37, screamed during her desperate struggle to break free. During which, she sustained injuries to her wrists. Blood was found inside the coffin when her body was exhumed at a cemetery in Riachao das Neves, northeast Brazil.
Her family eventually smashed up the stone tomb to find Rosangela lifeless. A video emerged showing the commotion in the Senhora Santana cemetery as locals initially took out the heavy coffin and removed the lid.
In the clip, some people ask to call an ambulance as others touch the woman’s feet and comment on how warm she feels. However, she was was soon declared dead in hospital and was buried the next day.
People living near the cemetery alerted her family 11 days after Rosangela had been laid to rest – after hearing screams and bangs coming from inside the tomb. Her body was still warm and it was turned in a different position to that in which it had been placed in the coffin.
The woman had injuries on her hands and forehead where it appeared she had tried to fight her way out of the structure. Cotton wool, which had been in the woman’s ears and nostrils, had also come out of her body.
The nails around the sides of the coffin lid had also been pushed upwards, and there were scratches and blood on the inside, they claim. Rosangela had been at the Hospital do Oeste in Barreiras, in Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia, for a week after being rushed there by her family with severe fatigue.
She suffered two cardiac arrests before dying from “septic shock”, according to her death certificate. The woman, who was married but didn’t have children, reportedly suffered fainting spells since she was seven years old and took anticonvulsant medicines. Her family said their goodbyes at a wake held when Rosangela was buried in a concrete tomb at the municipal cemetery in her home town, Riachao das Neves, the following day in January 2018.
Speaking at the time, Housewife Natalina Silva told Brazil’s G1 website that many people had heard muffled screams during the night. She said: “When I got there right in front of the tomb, I heard banging from inside it. I thought the kids who play around the cemetery were playing a joke on me. Then I heard her groan twice, and after those two groans she stopped.”
Ms Santos’ mother, Germana de Almeida, 66, said that when they removed the coffin and opened it they found that her body was injured – injuries she claimed were not there when they buried her. She said: “She had tried to open the lid, even the nails that had been hammered in were loose. Her hands were injured, like she had been trying to get out.”
Ana Francisco Dias, who lives near the cemetery, told Brazil’s Globo TV station: “There were than 500 people who came here and packed the cemetery, everybody went to see, lots of people touched her foot and everybody saw that she was still warm. She wasn’t cold.”
