Buried Alive for Six Days

A man buries his wife alive because he does not want to deal with her severe sickness; she is found and lives for a little while longer.

London-- An extraordinary case of intentional live burial is reported in a medical publication. It occurred in the Betul district, C.P. A man named Dama was tried for the murder of Indro, his wife. She had been suffering from chronic dysentery, and the husband took her and the family to another village. Here he appeared to have abandoned his wife and returned with the children to his own village. He said that he had left the wife with an exorcist for treatment. The village authorities sent for the man, however, and the wife was made over to him. But he came back the same day, saying that the women had died on the way and that he has buried her. Six days later a villager saw something move in the jungle, and his cattle shied when they went near the place. A search was made by the authorities, and they found a grave with the leg of a woman clearly visible. They heard her say: “I am not dead,” and she also said that her husband buried her.
After being lifted out of the grave and given food, the woman was sent to the Badnur hospital and lived 12 days longer. The accused man was sentenced to transportation for life. The extraordinary part of the story, apart from the callousness of the husband, adds the medical paper, is the fact that the women must have lain in the shallow grave for six or seven days without food or water, and then survived 12 days longer.

“Buried Alive for Six Days,” Black Virginia: The Richmond Planet, 1894-1909, accessed March 22, 2023, https://blackvirginia.richmond.edu/items/show/505.