News

Trafficking the dead

By ANDREA DOWNER, Staff Reporter

Anthony Burton has been working at Madden's Funeral Parlour for six years. - Norman Grindley

FORTY-THREE-YEAR-old Anthony Burton has been collecting dead bodies for the past six years. During that time, he has visited the scenes of quite a few of the most gruesome murders that have occurred in the Corporate Area. He was not there as a curious spectator however, nor was he there collecting crucial evidence to be used to solve the crimes. He has always been part of the 'clean-up' crew, his job beginning after police investigators have completed their tasks.

His job includes the recovery of bodies and transporting them to the morgue and eventually preparing them to be buried.

When 44-year-old Caston Haase went berserk and hacked his three young nieces to death last week Tuesday evening in Recourse, Mavis Bank, St. Andrew, Anthony Burton had the gruesome and tear-jerking task of retrieving the badly mutilated bodies of the two seven-year-old girls and the four-month-old infant. A few hours later, after residents had hacked Haase to death, Burton also loaded Haase's body into his 'meat wagon', albeit, with much less sympathy than he had handled Haase's victims.

Burton is a mortuary attendant with Madden's Funeral Parlour ­ a job he has had for six years. When THE STAR spoke with Burton, he had already retrieved the bodies of the two seven-year-old girls, but had not been able to retrieve the body of the four-month-old baby as he and the residents were fearful that Haase, who was armed with a machete, was close to where the baby lay in the yard, where she fell after she was chopped from her fleeing mother's arms.

He visibly fought back tears when he was asked how the deaths of the children had affected him. "Bwoy, it terrible," he said shaking his head. "When mi see how 'im do di pickney dem," he continued before words failed him again.

He said the brutal murders could only be compared to the shooting death of three sisters in Rema in 2003. Back then a pair of three-year-old twins and their 16-year-old sister, who was nine months' pregnant were shot dead in post-election violence. He also had the task of retrieving those bodies.

Deeply touched

He said however, that the Mavis Bank killings touched him more deeply than the Rema massacre. After he had recovered the baby's body, he described how the three bodies of the defenseless children looked when he found them. He said one of the seven-year-olds lay at the side of the road where she had fallen after her head was split open. The other one lay in a corner at the bottom of a footpath that led uphill into a yard. Her skull was also chopped wide open.

"Him chop di pickney dem when dem a run fi dem life, dem couldn't go any further," he stated. "Di one when deh at di bottom of di hill did a try fi run up, but she couldn't meck it," he surmised.

He said he found the body of the baby girl in a yard, with one of her hands that had been severed lying beside her. A portion of her face was missing.

But what would cause someone to work with the dead? Burton said he just needed a job. He said after 12 years as a labourer on coffee farms in St. Andrew, he needed a change of scenery.

He landed the job with Madden's after walking downtown and simply going into business places to enquire if there were any vacancies. Admitting that he was a bit scared at first, he took the job with Madden's and proceeded with much trepidation on his first pick-up. When asked to describe his emotions on that virgin run he uttered one word. Twice.

"Fear. Fear," he repeated. "I didn't know what to expect but I put on a brave face."

He said however, that it was not as traumatic as he had anticipated as the body that he went to collect was that of an old lady who had died in her sleep. He said those kinds of deaths are easier to deal with than murders.

"When mi see young people, murdered and their relatives weeping, it not easy. I don't feel it as much when a tecking up someone who has lived their lives and died in their beds, but it is different when murder strikes," he reiterated.

Six years is a long time, and that is probably why Burton was not able to give even a rough estimate of how many dead bodies he has handled over that time. He confessed however, that it has been 'plenty'.

He told THE STAR that he does not expect to be dealing with dead people until he retires as he has dreams of being his own boss one day, and maybe owning a taxi.