Family Fears It Buried Pregnant Teen Alive

Relatives say Nelsy Perez, 16, had bruises on her fingers as if she had tried to escape
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2015 8:26 AM CDT

If you suffer from taphephobia, you may not want to read on. The family of a pregnant teen in Honduras who died and was buried yanked her body out of her tomb a day after the funeral, convinced she was still alive, the Guardian reports. The incident reportedly happened in July, but it's just being circulated now after a TV report last week from Primer Impacto. In a somewhat confusing chain of events, the Guardian reports that three-months-pregnant Nelsy Perez (also referred to as Neysi in some reports), 16, suddenly fell ill. Some local reports say she had a heart attack after hearing gunfire; others indicated that the cause of her sudden illness was unknown and that her parents called in a pastor for an exorcism, thinking she was possessed. Whatever the cause, Nelsy apparently died and was buried.

But when her husband (also referred to as her fiance) visited the tomb a day later, he tells Primer Impacto, "I could hear noises inside. I heard banging, then I heard her voice. She was screaming for help," the New York Daily News reports. A cemetery worker backs up his claim, per AOL, saying he heard screams. Video shows relatives breaking open the concrete tomb and pulling out Nelsy's casket. Another shot shows her in the coffin, dressed in her wedding gown. Family rushed her to a clinic, but a doctor there said Nelsy was dead. Her family, however, continues to insist Nelsy was buried alive—they say her fingers were bruised and there was a broken glass panel inside the coffin. And while a police investigator says the decomposing body's gases could have broken the glass, an aunt says the teen "didn't smell bad or anything." Some say it's possible she could have initially suffered from a trance-like state called catalepsy. (This guy panicked and buried his date alive when she collapsed during a diabetic episode.)

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