|
Dad of Slain Bullfighter Asks: 'Where's His Heart?' — LIMA, Peru (Reuters) - The body of a Spanish bullfighter murdered in Peru was missing his eyes, brain and heart and was stuffed with sawdust and pages from a telephone directory before being sent home, his father said. "I don't know if my son's organs were removed before he was taken to the Lima morgue or in the morgue; what is certain is that my son's body came to Spain without his heart. Where is his heart?" Jose Tomas Reina, the father of the late Jose Reina, 23, told Panamericana Television late on Monday. The father had traveled to Peru to demand answers and was due to travel home on Tuesday to Ciudad Real, south of Madrid. There was no official comment on the matter. Reina's body was found washed up on a Lima surfing beach in July, a week after disappearing while on a Peruvian bullfighting tour. Officials said his body was in the water about a week. One police officer and three members of a municipal police force were arrested for the murder. Police said they arrested Reina for disorderly conduct under the influence of alcohol and drugs and then beat him to death when he tried to get away. Reina's father said he left his son's body in a Lima morgue for one night, after which it was embalmed and sent to Spain. "(The body) left Peru without eyes, without a brain ... There was just a big hole in his head ... He didn't have his lungs, heart, liver or intestines, absolutely nothing," said Marco Garcia, the family's lawyer. "The eyes were also removed and there was woman's skin on his face, which we think was put there to cover up scars from abuse and torture," he said. Dr. Javier Arias Estela, the director of the center where Reina was embalmed, said the body was treated according to standards for decayed corpses that had been given autopsies. He said the body was decomposed from having been in the sea for a week and that that medical officials had used porous materials like sawdust to fill the corpse to preserve it. Copyright 2002 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Source/Publisher: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/reuters20021113_254.html
|
