There has been a rare but bizarre grave-looting incident at Mampong in the Ashanti Region. This involved the stealing of a corpse from a grave exactly one year after burial by unknown suspected grave robbers. Incidentally, this happened in the same week the bereaved family was to commemorate the first anniversary of the woman’s death.
A day after the looting was discovered, the 85-year-old woman’s body was surreptitiously brought back to the cemetery without her head, which seemed to have been purposefully cut off with a sharp object, an eyewitness informed correspondent Nicholas Osei-Wusu.
Kwame Effah, a gravedigger who told a reporter about the crime, stated that he discovered the theft last Tuesday, February 7, 2026, after being informed about it by a fellow gravedigger. Mr. Effah claimed that he was able to recognise the tomb and the grieving family because of his years of work experience and knowledge of the area.
“The grave looters entered the tomb, the modern type which allows the coffin to be pushed in during burial, broke into the coffin and took away the corpse. All the articles, including the shroud, were left behind. I informed the Assemblyman for Akyeremade about the incident,” the gravedigger narrated.
According to him, the suspects might have taken advantage of a heavy downpour on Tuesday night to perpetrate the act.
Yaw Nsoh, the second of five children of the deceased, confirmed the body as that of his mother and said the incident occurred at a time the bereaved family was planning to commemorate the first anniversary of her death. Mr. Nsoh said that upon consultation with the deity, three suspects had been identified.
“When they begin to suffer death and other calamities, they’d confess to the abomination. I can’t name those identified. We can’t allow our mother to be desecrated like that,” he said.
According to Kwame Nkrumah, the Assembly Member for the Akyeremade Electoral Area, the incident is unusual and has caused some panic in the community.
“Not many in the area are aware of the incident, but among those who know, there is a bit of apprehension. “Maybe we need to beef up security at the cemetery. The police are investigating it,” Mr. Nkrumah said.
He added that the Mampong District Police Command has taken up the incident. The body was later reburied while the police started their investigations to find and apprehend the suspects, overseen by the Mampong Police Command and the Municipal Environmental Health Office.
