Over half refrigerators in city morgue not working

Unclaimed bodies are piling up at a morgue of th Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences (Imelcf) They are mostly people who died of trauma.

The judicial morgue has 33 refrigerators, 17 of which are damaged. But there is no money to repair them so two bodies are being stored in compartments meant for one, causing concerns to relatives

Imelcf director, Humberto Mas, said the 17 unclaimed bodies, include three Colombian guerrillas killed in a clash with police in Darien, three months ago. Authorities are awaiting a response from the Colombian authorities for the repatriation of bodies.

To build a new morgue would cost $10 million In the meantime, request has been maid for $ 2.8 million to make urgent improvements.
In recent months there has been an increase in homicides and violent deaths, so the morgue ran out of capacity to keep bodies for morhan two days. Every day about 10 autopsies are done.

The director warned that if this situation remains crowded, they will decide to make "solemn funerals."Unclaimed bodies will be taken to a common grave in Pacora says La Prensa.