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why at midnight?

Started by Geoff_N, June 05, 2007, 06:01:25 PM

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Geoff_N

Police are due to exhume the first of several suspicious death bodies at midnight tonight.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/6725079.stm

Why do they have to do so at midnight? It seems very creepy and nineteenth century, and prone to missing vital clues otherwise seen in daylight. Is there some covenant or ancient law forbidding the exhumation of bodies in daylight?

Geoff

Lord_of_the_Dense

While the whole 19th century angle is grrovy and all, I  think it may have been a little more practical. I think we can agree that the reason it was done at night was not only because the cemetary was closed to visitors at that time, but it would be less suspicious in the darkness, meaning less people to casually observe the event. My only guess about the midnight time frame is a matter of shifts for the police. If a new shift started at or just before midnight, you'd have a fresh crew of police ot carry out whatever requirements are needed for this procedure. Having police rotate out during the event doesn't make much sense to me.

Re-burial doesn't have to be as secretive as it would appear as the original burial to any onlookers. Who knows, maybe they just wanted a literal early start to their day.
Soul, Peace & Chicken Grease!


BeatKing.com :: Music News, Forums, and Lyrics

"THIS MEMBER IS CYBERWASTE INTOLERANT"

Geoff_N

I would consider coming across a group of people (even with arclights and police) digging up bodies at midnight more suspicious and spooky than the same people doing so in the daytime.

You may have something with regard to shifts etc but the news actually use the words "at the stroke of midnight" - rather dramatic!

Ed

I think it probably does have a lot to do with not wanting too many spectators, but then you could achieve a similar rate of bystanders if you did it at five in the morning. They don't generally mess around - in goes the digger bucket, they finish it off with a spade, pull the coffin out and put it in a hearse. Only takes an hour or so. Seems a bit melodramatic to do it in the witching hour.

Not sure about the shift thing. The coppers I know work strange rotations, like two till ten, or ten till six. I suppose because they don't work twelve hour shifts, they can't all start and finish at midnight or midday.

It's strange, for sure. That's what I thought when I first heard. At least the grave wasn't capped with concrete, like they do as a matter of law in some (maybe all?) states in America. Imagine having a compressor and a road drill blasting away for two or three hours, trying to break out the concrete :scratch: That'd upset the neighbours, dead and alive.
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]

Lord_of_the_Dense

Hey blunt, maybe you could give the Glastonbury station a call and inquire about thier general procedures. Might be interesting.
Soul, Peace & Chicken Grease!


BeatKing.com :: Music News, Forums, and Lyrics

"THIS MEMBER IS CYBERWASTE INTOLERANT"

Ed

Yeah, maybe - if there's anybody there to answer the phone. In the neighbouring town, called Street, there's only a temporary office that's closed most of the time (I know, because I had £1500 worth of materials stolen from a building within a stone's throw of the police station). Even in Yeovil, with a population of 70,000, apparently there's only two coppers on duty over the weekend. I'll ask my neighbour, I think - he's in the CID, so he should know if there's a procedural reason. :afro:
Planning is an unnatural process - it is much more fun to do something.  The nicest thing about not planning is that failure comes as a complete surprise, rather than being preceded by a period of worry and depression. [Sir John Harvey-Jones]