Calif. cadaver takes unexpected detour to Greece

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Calif. cadaver takes unexpected detour to Greece=20
Monday September 16, 3:28 PM EDT=20


SAN JOSE, Calif., Sept 16 (Reuters) - The body of a California man
headed for burial in his native Mexico mistakenly ended up in Greece and
weeping relatives only discovered the mix-up when they opened the casket
and found a stranger inside.

Robert Castaneda's family, who raised $8,000 to bring back the body of
their 68-year-old patriarch to a final resting place, were shocked to
find a dead African-American man with a cigar and a book displaying a
picture of the World Trade Center, the San Jose Mercury News reported on
Monday.

Castaneda died 10 days ago in California and his relatives thought they
had flown the body back to his hometown of Apatzingan in the Mexican
state of Michoacan. They realized, however, it was the wrong cadaver
when they opened the casket on Friday.


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"My sister called us immediately," Belen Castaneda, the Mexican dead
man's daughter, told the newspaper. "She was in shock. She said that
wasn't my father, and we couldn't believe what was happening to us."

Delta Air Lines (DAL
<http://money.excite.com/jsp/qt/full.jsp?time=3D0&symbol_search_text=3DDA=
L>
) officials phoned the family to inform them Castaneda's body had
somehow ended up in Greece, according to the newspaper.

That casket was flown to New York and is scheduled to arrive in San
Francisco on Monday along with the mystery cadaver, whose identity was
not known, the newspaper said.

A representative for Delta could not immediately be reached for comment.

Family members also said they do not know whether the airline, airport
workers or the funeral home made the mistake but were trying to raise
more money to get Castaneda's body back to Mexico.=20


=A92002 Reuters Limited.=20

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