Man turns up alive at his own funeral in Argentina, prompting inquiry into misidentified body

A 22-year-old man who had disappeared during a days-long drinking binge appeared at his own funeral in Alderetes, north of Cordoba, Argentina, shouting, 'I'm alive!' He had been reported dead to police by his mother after another young man was run over by a sugarcane truck.

Although investigators initially suspected suicide, prosecutors classified the case as negligent homicide and ordered an autopsy on the body of the man who died in the sugarcane-truck incident. The mother said she recognized the body by clothing and certain features, and authorities released the remains to the family, who organized a wake.

The man who turned up alive said he had been on a days-long drinking binge in Alderetes and was completely unaware of his alleged death. He was taken to the police station for questioning after entering the funeral, while the body was returned to the morgue to verify its identity.

The body was later identified as Maximiliano Enrique Acosta, 28, from the nearby town of Delfín Gallo. However, authorities had not initially returned the correct body to the family; Acosta's brother Hernán said, 'Everything was wrong from the beginning. First, they handed over the body without proper identification. Then they made me go to the morgue twice. We shouldn't have to go through this after everything we suffered.' Mr. Acosta's body was eventually returned to his family, and a funeral was held in his hometown on Tuesday. The Argentine Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an internal investigation to determine how the errors occurred.