Trio charged after body part allegedly removed from funeral home

Three people accused of removing tissue from a corpse at a funeral home south of Brisbane are due to face court after being charged by police.

Queensland Police said two men and a woman attended the funeral home on Eastern Road at Browns Plains shortly before 1pm on Friday after arranging to view the body of a man who was known to them.

Two arrests were made at the Swanborough Funerals site, while the third was made at a Browns Plains home shortly before 6.30pm.

“It is alleged one of the men interfered with the corpse whilst at the premises and fled the scene before police arrival,” a police spokesperson said.

The trio, the men aged 47 and 38 and the woman 43, have each been charged with entering a premises with intent to commit an indictable offence, being armed with intent to enter a premises and commit an indictable offence, and misconduct with a corpse.

Owner Esther Swanborough told Nine News she was asked to leave the room “for cultural reasons” as the family gathered around their deceased father.

“When I came back in, they were acting very suspicious, and I said to them, ‘What have you done?’ – I was shocked that this has happened,” she said.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before. We obviously, during this whole process, had the best intentions to be able to care for this family well, not realising that we were being tricked into something very different.”

The charged trio were scheduled to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Saturday.

Police have not publicly identified the deceased man or detailed the body part allegedly removed.

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