WHERE IS MOM'S BODY?

Funeral parlour blunders have left families wondering whose ashes they hold - and whether they'll ever find their loved ones' remains

- BY ALULUTHO GUZANA

She’d known him for a few years and had always been impressed by him – he was meticulous, profesional and had a keen eye for detail, especially when it came to choosing flowers for funeral services. Flowers are Freda Fortune’s business and she used to work in a shop in Brakenfell, Cape Town, where she first interacted with Petrus Booysen in 2022.

“I liked his work ethic,” she says. “I’ve been in the business for 22 years and I’ve worked with many undertakers. But there was something special about his work.”

So when her mom, Rachel Trussell, died in August last year at the age of 94, she hired Petrus, who ran St Francis Funeral Services, to handle her funeral. But instead of the peaceful experience she’d envisaged, she got an ongoing nightmare. The ashes she was given after the cremation didn’t belong to her mom – and after much investigation she discovered Rachel had been buried in a pauper’s grave. The situation Freda found herself in wasn’t an isolated incident either: several other families in Cape Town allege they’ve have had similar service from Petrus and he now faces at least 10 charges of fraud. Petrus was released on bail in January and appeared in court again recently where the case was postponed to 27 May and moved to the regional court.

Freda hopes the court case will bring some closure to her ordeal – and some answers to the many questions going round and round in her head.

The trouble began when Freda (64) and her husband, David Fortune (68), booked a grave for Rachel at their family plot at the Maitland Cemetery on Petrus’ behalf as he’d been briefly hospitalised for a foot injury.