TROUBLE IN THE TOMB

It was a big funeral. Almost everyone who held a position of any significance in Barbados was there. A big funeral for a big man. The honourable Thomas Case had been quite a size-and quite a weight too, as the pall bearers found to their great discomfort.

The coterge moved towards the Chase family tomb, a partly buried vault of heavy stone that already contained the bodies of three members of the family, Mrs. Thomasina Goddard, Chase's sister, who had been laid to rest there in July 1807; Mary Ann Chase (his little daughter) and Dorcas Chase (older daughter) whose funeral had taken place just a month earlier on July 1812. A small party moved forward to lift the heavy stone slab that covered the vault. And at that moment, what had been a perfectly normal funeral turned into a horrifying mystery. They recoiled from the vault's entrance, fear stamped on their faces, and flatly refused to go into the tomb. A few people, filled with curiosity moved forward to see what the commotion was all about- and got a shock of their lives.

A month earlier, when Dorcas Chase had been laid to rest, the three coffins in the vault had been tucked away tidily away in their respective niches. But now, Mary Ann's little coffin was standing on end against the far wall of the vault, and the others were lying on the floor, tumbled out of their places. After the initial shock had worn off, the funeral of Thomas Chase went ahead as planned. The other three coffins were carefully returned to their places, and Thomas' lead lined casket was laid beside them. Afterwards, the entrance stone was replaced and sealed around the edges with cement.

On the face of it , it looked as if someone had broke into the vault in an attempt to rob the bodies. Everyone who worked near the cemetery was thoroughly questioned but with no result. And there was no escaping the fact that the coffins themselves had not been tampered with; there bore no marks in evidence of any attempt to break them open. But the authorities were taking no chances. They ordered that the seals on the vaults in the churchyard were to be inspected regularly- at least twice a day. For four years this routine was observed, and during this time nothing out of the ordinary happened. Not, that is, until the funeral of another member of the family- a young boy named Samuel Ames.

Before the vault was opened, a delegation examined the seal around the slab. There were intact. But when the slab was lifted aside, the astonished officials found that the coffins were scattered around the vault's interior. Only one coffin was still in place and that was of Mrs. Goddard. Thomas' coffin, which was so heavy that it had taken 8 men to lift it was lying on its side, 6 feet from it's original place.