Roy Williams funeral case takes new turn as family says body has been found

The dispute over the funeral arranged for Roy Williams has taken a fresh turn, after his family said a body shown to them at a funeral home on Thursday appeared to be the relative they had been searching for since his planned burial on June 7.

The family went to the funeral home intending to collect a DNA sample from the body they say had been placed in the coffin and taken to church on the day Williams was expected to be buried. Relatives had repeatedly maintained that the body displayed at the service was not Williams, prompting their effort to locate him.

But when a body was presented for examination, the family said it was not the same one they had seen at the funeral. A relative said the family’s attorney called by video and showed the body on a table. The relative said she immediately recognised it as Williams, then asked where the body from the church service had gone. According to the family, they were told the funeral home had no other body.

The body was reportedly frozen, and the family said staff indicated they did not know the DNA procedure. Relatives said they waited more than two hours before the sampling process could move ahead. Although they believe Williams’ body has now been located, they are awaiting DNA results, which they were told should take 10 to 15 days.

The family is also questioning where Williams’ body had been before Thursday and what became of the body that was taken to the church on June 7. One relative said the condition of the body raised concerns that it appeared decomposed and may have been exhumed.

Relatives accused the funeral home of deception and called for tighter oversight of funeral operators in Jamaica. When contacted, the funeral home’s operators denied that a DNA test was carried out and maintained that the correct body had been sent to the church.