Funeral home owner's son denies coffin swap and accuses former employee of acting from 'envy'
Ignacio Morchón Vaquero declared on Wednesday that former worker Justo Martín fabricated false evidence. The prosecutor is seeking sentences totalling 20 years in prison for him.
Morchón Vaquero testifies in 'coffin case' trial
Ignacio Morchón Vaquero, son of the founder of the El Salvador funeral services group, denied on Wednesday before the court that he had ordered the exchange of coffins before cremations. According to ABC, the accused also claimed that Justo Martín, the former worker who allegedly exposed the scandal, filed his complaint "out of envy" and fabricated false evidence.
The prosecutor is seeking sentences totalling 20 years imprisonment for Morchón Vaquero. In his statement, the accused answered only questions from his lawyer.
The origin of the complaint, according to the accused
Morchón Vaquero explained that the conflict with Justo Martín originated after his father's refusal to grant him a pay rise—which would have increased his pension amount—and to hire his children. From that moment on, according to his testimony, the worker began making threats.
The accused recounted that in a subsequent conversation in which he asked for explanations, Martín told him that his father "had been a bastard his whole life" and warned him that he had compromising photographs in his possession. Morchón Vaquero attributed the complaint to the envy Martín felt seeing how his father had prospered in business while he remained in the same position and on the same salary. He described him directly as a "bad person" and accused him of having switched the coffin of his own father-in-law.
The accused's role in the company
The witness acknowledged that, although he received a salary from the company, he held no defined position within it. His activity was limited, in his own words, to selling burial plots and covering absences and holiday shifts for various employees.
Regarding the management structure, Morchón Vaquero admitted that the true head of the companies was his father even after his retirement, "who liked to have all the details under control". He recalled that since the founding of Agencia Funeraria Castellana in 1985, the key to the business had been "making simple what is most difficult".
The former employee's version and the trial phase statements
During the same hearing, the testimony given during the investigation phase was also played back before the court. Justo Martín stated at that time that the orders consisted of changing all the "boxes that could be". Ignacio Morchón Alonso, the father, for his part denied the facts and testified that he never gave any instruction to any worker to substitute coffins.
The former worker, who was employed at El Salvador's facilities in Santovenia de Pisuerga, described a climate of constant threats of dismissal by the owner towards certain employees. According to his account, it was this fear of losing his job that led him to start photographing the coffin switches.
Martín also detailed the method used to keep families away from the cremation area: only the crematory oven fans were switched on to make them believe the incineration had already begun, at which point the coffins were replaced with defective ones.
Money found at the residence
Ignacio Morchón Alonso, the father, reiterated in his investigation phase testimony the threats he said he had received from Justo Martín following his refusal to raise his salary or compensate him financially before retirement. Regarding the nearly one million euros found by the National Police during a search of his home, he stated that it was his personal savings and explained, when questioned by the prosecutor, that he kept it at home because of the "fear" he had of banks.
Source: ABC