embalm

She said "they had embalmed him too late" and Mr Nightingale said: "He hadn't been embalmed until they realised the mistake."

Workers at Butherus Maser & Love Funeral Home noticed she was still breathing just before noon immediately after laying her on the embalming table, Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said.

In some communities, civil society workers say, people have dug up graves to grind bones to cut with the drug, seeking chemicals used in embalming.

The law states that the deceased must be either embalmed or refrigerated within 24 hours of death.

But STR typing is often impossible to use with degraded remains, especially those preserved with post-war embalming techniques involving formaldehyde, Marshall says.