JOVAN Lyons, a Jamaican killed in Costa Rica on November 10 last year, allegedly by the police, was not buried until last Sunday because Costa Rican authorities failed to record the cause of death on the certificate sent with the body to Kingston.

The body of the 24-year-old man was flown to Jamaica on November 21 last year, but stayed on ice at Jones Funeral Home in downtown Kingston until last Sunday, racking up a $82,000 storage bill.

Lyons’ family members said they had made arrangements to have him buried on December 17 in St Ann where he grew up, but that they were refused the burial rite by a pastor on the basis that the cause of death was not specified on the death certificate.

“The pastor sey him cannot bury him because we don’t have the proper certificate,” Jovan’s sister Nicsassica told the Observer last week.

Official documents from the Costa Rican ministries of health and foreign relations, which accompanied the body when it landed in Jamaica last year, included death and embalming certificates. On the death certificate, it was declared in Spanish that the cause of Lyons’ death was being investigated.

Another document, signed by the Jamaican Health Department when the body landed, authorised its landing for the purpose of interment and noted that the man had died from “multiple gunshot wounds”.

However, when the family took the body to Pentecost Church of God in Cave Valley, St Ann to have it buried, it was ordered sent back to Kingston because the pastor, Elder Morris was not satisfied with the documents produced.

“I asked them for the burial order, but they didn’t have it for me to go ahead with it, and I had to call the St Ann’s Bay police and ask them about it,” the pastor said.

According to the pastor, when he called the police, he was told that if he wasn’t satisfied he should not proceed and so he sent the grieving family away.

This infuriated not only the family, but also the undertakers who had travelled from downtown Kingston to St Ann, only to be sent back to their parlour.

“My driver sey that before the body even come out of the hearse, the pastor asked what was the cause of death and said he wouldn’t bury the man because there was no cause of death on the certificate,” said Michael Jones, proprietor of Jones Funeral Home.

“I don’t know why anyone would stop the funeral because the Public Health Department checked it (the body) and Customs cleared it,” Jones told the Observer.

The Registrar General’s Department (RGD) said that when a Jamaican dies overseas, the agency doesn’t register the death because it didn’t happen on Jamaican soil or in Jamaica’s territorial waters. The RGD said it would therefore not issue a burial certificate.

It added that in such cases, the country where the incident occurred would send all the relevant documents to the foreign and health ministries here, and having satisfied the local authorities th at no diseases or illegal substances were transported with the body, it would be released to the deceased’s family.

Meanwhile, the Lyons have accused both governments of Jamaica and Costa Rica of failing to give them details about the death of their loved one.

“Dem kill him an don’t even mek ah report. If somebody neva call mi an tell mi dat dem kill mi son, mi woulda believe seh him ova deh same way,” said Jovan’s father, Orville.

Orville Lyons said according to the reports he got from his son’s girlfriend in the Central American country, his son was at the supermarket buying a bottle of water when the police pulled up and shot him because they claimed he was wanted.

But the senior Lyons refuted claims that his son was involved in any illegal activities.

“Him doan involve inna nutten. Ah mi first son dat outta nine (children), six bwoy an three girl…Ah try wid dem enuh; is drinks and beer I sell seven days ah week so dem father work hard to put dem somewhere. Mi have all mi food fi eat an cannot eat it. Ah cannot sleep,” the father mourned.

The Costa Rican Embassy in Jamaica said it could not help the family outside of facilitating the transportation of the body to Jamaica, which they had already done. They said the embassy in Jamaica was for the benefit of Costa Ricans in Jamaica and therefore had nothing to do with Jamaicans in Costa Rica.