Mother and Father Strongly Believe They Buried Wrong Body in St. Catherine

A mother and father are again in despair after discovering that the deceased boy they buried last Saturday is likely not their son. Mother Toni-Ann Alexander and father Kenroy Gooden learned of the shocking news four days after the funeral of their 11-year-old son.

Alexander and Gooden’s son, O’Brien ‘Dante’ Gooden, passed away on December 26, 2023, reportedly after going to the Rio Cobre River in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, with other children. A report detailed that O’Brien drowned after experiencing difficulties, and his body was located the following day.

On the day of the funeral, Alexander had doubts that the boy in the glass casket was her son when she saw the body. Unfortunately, when she expressed her doubts, funeral attendees and some of her relatives dismissed her concerns, assuming that she was speaking out of grief.

After the funeral, which occurred at the church in Bog Walk, St. Catherine, Alexander continued to deny that the body they buried was her son’s. Alexander said that the boy in the casket was “taller than Dantae, blacker than Dantae,” and “him never look like Dantae at all,” in the Jamaica Star report.

The report stated that after Gooden received a call from the funeral home about a potential mistake with the body they buried, he immediately went to the funeral home. Gooden expressed that he saw his son inside the funeral home, and he has since been emotionally distressed.

Gooden also said, “Oh boy, mi feel like mi a guh crazy inna mi head, mi nuh know weh fi tell mi family dem.”

According to the report, while the funeral home’s CEO mentioned that an investigation has been launched to determine whether the body at the funeral home is truly O’Brien’s, the parents have expressed confidence that the boy is their son and stated that they need to have another funeral.

Speaking on the issue, the CEO of the funeral home expressed, “If there is a misplace of the body, we are not the first and we won’t be the last.”

Additionally, the director indicated there would be no funeral if the body is his, explaining, “There is no way at all that we will plan another funeral, so if the body should be moved, we just remove the other one, suh if this one is his’, yuh move that one and yuh bury O’Brien same time. If that is the case, yuh don’t plan another funeral for that.”