A funeral parlour owner who interrupted three visitors allegedly removing tissue from a man’s body has revealed how the trio first aroused her and her staff’s suspicions – leading to them being charged.
Esther Swanborough, who has run her family funeral business in Browns Plains, south of Brisbane, for 30 years, said the two men and a 43-year-old woman turned up to view the body of an elderly man.
Brian Wong, 47, Changmin Koo, 38 and Cassandra Hunter allegedly presented themselves as the son of the deceased, a male relative and a female support friend respectively.
They arrived carrying backpacks for an arranged appointment at 1pm on Friday to view Wong’s father’s body inside the parlour’s Still Waters Chapel.
‘We took them downstairs to have their private viewing time,’ Ms Swanborough said.
One of the visitors then asked staff, “please leave the chapel because we have cultural practices that we need to carry out”, Ms Swanborough recalled.
Ms Swanborough said that was ‘not uncommon. We have 240 cultures we deal with’ but what followed allegedly ‘was not anything to do with culture’.
She also became suspicious after one of her staff members overheard Koo speaking and told her that he allegedly ‘was definitely not a relative, he was speaking Korean’, not Mandarin, which was the language spoken by Wong’s family.
Esther Swanborough went to check on the trio as they went to view Brian Wong’s father’s body inside the chapel and found ‘they were trying to remove something … gloves were being put away. I said, “What have you done”
The body was inside the parlour’s Still Waters Chapel where a horrified Esther Swanborough discovered the trio allegedly trying to remove a body part with scalpels or blades they had smuggled in inside their backpacks
‘Then I just went back in to make sure they were doing okay. Everyone grieves differently,’ Ms Swanborough said.
That was when she allegedly discovered that Wong’s father’s body had been interfered with.
‘Something very different was happening. My impression was that something else … was occurring.
‘They were (allegedly) trying to remove something that would have been very obvious when he was moved from the viewing room … gloves were being put away.
‘I said, “What have you done,” and that was when … I started piecing things together, and we called the police straight away.’
Confronted by Ms Swanborough, Brian Christian Wong allegedly ran from parlour which was declared a crime scene when officers arrived.
Police allege one of the men removed a piece of tissue from the body after the group entered the funeral home carrying scissors, scalpels and blades, which Ms Swanborough said had on arrival been hidden in large backpacks.
The bizarre and grisly alleged incident left her ‘shocked, horrified, mortified, that something like this was occurring where in my thirty years and our manager in thirty years have never seen anything like this’.
Cassandra Hunter and Changmin Koo were arrested at the scene. Police arrested Brian Wong at his family’s Browns Plains home more than five hours later, on Friday night.
Wong, Koo and Hunter were charged with misconduct with a corpse, entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence and being armed with intent to enter a premises and commit an indictable offence.
Esther Swanborough said in 30 years of operating her family funeral business she had never seen anything like the sight of the alleged mutilation or removal of part of a body by a relative
Ms Swanborough was told to leave the chapel so the trio could have ‘cultural’ time with Mr Wong’s body, but ‘it was not anything to do with culture’ that took place
A Brisbane magistrate remanded the trio behind bars, saying that they ‘whilst armed with scissors, scalpels, and blades to commit an offence, and then, without justification, interfered, namely, wounded a dead body’
They faced Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday and were all remanded in custody after making no application for bail.
Magistrate Peter Saggers said the group had several sharp implements, according to The Courier-Mail.
‘Just reading the bench charge sheets, they’re entering Swanborough Funerals home at Browns Plains, whilst armed with scissors, scalpels, and blades to commit an offence, and then, without justification, interfered, namely, wounded a dead body,’ he said.
Brian Wong was remanded to face Beenleigh Magistrates Court on November 12.
Changmin Koo will next front court on November 10 when he will need a Korean interpreter.
Cassandra Hunter will remain behind bars until December 7, when she will appear in court via video link.
In a video posted to Facebook, Ms Swanborough sought to reassure other customers that ‘at no point in time were any of the other families we were caring for at the time affected’.
‘It was an isolated incident in our viewing room with family members. I want to thank everyone for your support, so much appreciated. We’re doing okay, we’re shocked, we’re emotionally distressed.’
