A poignant ceremony in which a man’s leg is to be buried nine years after his death is to take place in Derry City Cemetery.
The family of the late Kevin McClintock will gather at his grave on Saturday to bury his shin bone, years after his death in a road traffic collision in Donegal.
Two people were killed in the two-vehicle crash near Newtowncunningham on November 14 2015.
Speaking to The Irish News, Kevin’s father Tony McClintock said the burial of his son’s leg bone would mark the “end of a nine year ordeal” for the family.
“It will be bad but at the same time it will be good because it will bring us a bit of closure,” said Mr McClintock, who added the whole episode had severely impacted his mental health.
“Kevin’s wife was expecting a baby when he died. We called her Holly when she was born because he was found dead under a Holly tree after the crash. He was thrown from the car. The burial is taking place at 1.00pm and anyone who wants to come along will be very welcome.”
Mr McClintock explained that following the fatal RTC, it had taken the family three years to retrieve Kevin’s personal belongings.
Initially he had no idea they were being stored in Letterkenny Garda Station. He had been told they were given to the undertaker who brought Kevin’s remains home to Derry for his funeral.
“After three years’ repeated toing and froing to various Garda stations we got a phone call to say they had been found. My daughter Roisin went to Letterkenny to collect them. At no stage did we receive an explanation or an apology for the way we were treated,” said Mr McClintock.
The grieving father said he was not prepared for what happened next.
He recalled: “We received a bag and a box containing Kevin’s boots. The bag was sealed with a big, red cable tie with LUH [Letterkenny University Hospital] on it.
“I got the whole family together in the kitchen and we opened the bag. When I unrolled Kevin’s jeans, I saw this big shin bone with a massive stain all around it in his jeans.
“At first, I thought it was a bit of tree. It was horrific. I lifted it and I told my wife to look away. I looked more closely, and I realised it was a bit of Kevin’s leg. In the three years it had been in the Garda station, the flesh had obviously rotted off. It was just a bone with wee bits and pieces of flesh remaining.
“It took us a further six years to get justice for Kevin and (Saturday) marks the end to that ordeal.”
