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Man returns home a year after his burial
He was pronounced dead on May 15, 2015, after supposedly being involved in a car accident.
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This bizarre story started last year, when Waluyo, from Suryoputran Panembahan village in Jogyakarta, left his home to work as a street cleaner in the city of Semarang, in order to support his family.
It was not long after his departure that his wife, Alim Eskatinah, got a call from the police who told her that Waluyo had been the victim of a serious car accident and was in critical condition at the emergency room.
The whole family and even some of their neighbors rushed to the hospital to be by his side, but the injured man died after a few days.
“In the hospital he was in a coma. Relatives and neighbors all visited him. He then died on May 7, 2015. Many came to his funeral, all the neighbors came,” Waluyo’s daughter, Anti Ristanti, told Indonesian newspaper, Detik.
Then, a few weeks ago, Waluyo returned home, where he was greeted with a unique mix of happiness and horror by his distraught family.
“Is this real or not? I have to step back (to see him), how can a dead person come back to life? I’m shocked,” his wife, Alim Eskatinah, told local reporters.
She was so shocked to see the man they had buried a week ago standing in front of her that she didn’t even believe it was him until she checked some distinctive physical traits.
“He had a scar on his back because of a skin condition,” Alim said. “He also had a missing tooth.” They all checked out, but just to be sure, the family asked him to name a few of relatives.
After passing these strange tests and hearing their story, the confused man told them that he had been in Semarang all this time, but since he didn’t have a mobile phone he never got in touch with them.
He had no idea his family had buried him back home.
Waluyo’s “return from the dead” obviously made his family very happy, but it also raised some very interesting questions, like who lies buried in his grave, how did none of his family and friends notice that the person in the hospital was not really Waluyo, and why did the police think he was the victim of that car accident in the first place.
Flabbergasted police have visited Waluyo since his return to maybe find some answers to this mystery, and annulled his death certificate, but not before he could have a morbid picture taken with it.
Unfortunately, having been pronounced dead, Waluyo will now have to go through several lengthy procedures to legally return among the living.
He will have to be re-introduced into the country’s population database and apply for a new identity card and family card, among other things.
Taking into consideration the peculiarity of his case, local authorties have accepted not to charge him the usual fees, though.
