EXCLUSIVE: A man’s body has had to be exhumed after he was buried in the grave of another man, following body identification failures by a Northern Territory hospital and a funeral home, the NT Independent can reveal.

A source with knowledge of the situation said a body believed to be Kumanjayi Morton’s, which had been buried for about a month, was exhumed last week from the Tennant Creek cemetery at a cost of $18,000.

Officials are awaiting DNA test results to confirm his identity, but believe the body is that of Mr Morton, an Ali Curung man who was supposed to be taken to Alice Springs before burial. His remains had reportedly been placed in the morgue at Tennant Creek Hospital with no identification tags.

The body was then buried by Tennant Creek Funerals in place of another man, Kumanjayi Waistcoat, the source said, and the mistake was discovered when the family were preparing to bury the second man.

The source said the body believed to be Mr Morton’s had not been able to be re-buried by family because the DNA results had not yet been returned, but Mr Waistcoat had now been buried.

They said the remains were exhumed by Barkly Regional Council because they operate the cemetery, but the council did not respond to questions.

Tennant Creek Funerals is run by Antonio Pereira, who is a relatively inexperienced contractor, for the owners Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation and the Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Corporation as trustee for the Central Australian Aboriginal Charitable Trust.

Mr Pereira declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation.

Julalikari Council Aboriginal Corporation chief executive officer Sam Ashton said the corporation took the situation extremely seriously, understood the impact on the families, and had brought in an independent investigator. He said he would not comment further until the investigation was finished.

Centrecorp Aboriginal Investment Corporation chief executive officer Randle Walker referred the NT Independent to Julalikari for comment.

NT Health, which runs the Tennant Creek Hospital also did not respond to questions.

Independent investigator and business consultant Renee Long said she would be trying to identify what occurred and would put recommendations forward so it did not happen again.

“That is part of it, but the first priority is to work with the families because it is a distressing situation,” she said.

“And we have been working alongside them as we found out this occurred.

“The investigation will not begin until everyone has been put to rest and we want to work with the families to lay their family member to rest, before we go full-steam investigating, just out of respect for the families. They are the priority.”

The source said the body believed to be Mr Morton’s was dug up last week after being buried in late October.

They said his body had been collected by Mr Pereira from the Aboriginal community of Ali Curung, about 170km southeast of Tennant Creek, but there had been no tag on the body to identify the deceased.

His remains were taken to the Tennant Creek Hospital and signed into the morgue by a hospital employee despite the lack of an identification tag, the source said.

“There should have been a tag and a life extinct form. Did they not check those when the hospital bloke signed him in and put it into a log book with the time, date and where they body came from?” they said.

“And they [NT Health] are trying to cover it up. The families are quite upset and angry about it. It is horrific.

“He was the nicest man you could meet, and he had done so much for his community. He didn’t deserve any of this.”

Mr Waistcoat had died in Alice Springs Hospital and Mr Pereira had driven him to Tennant Creek where he was also put in the morgue of the Tennant Creek Hospital and was intended to be buried in Tennant Creek.

The source said Mr Pereira was supposed to take Mr Morton’s body to Alice Springs to be put in a coffin that had been purchased for him to be buried in, but he had instead taken Mr Waistcoat’s body. That is when they realised it was the wrong body and the remains were taken back to Tennant Creek.

That meant that it was likely Mr Morton’s body had already been buried in Tennant Creek instead of Mr Waistcoat’s.

The NT Independent has been told open coffins are not common in Aboriginal burials.

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article said Tennant Creek Funerals was owned by the Centrecorp Foundation. This is not correct and the NT Independent apologises for the error.