Indian-origin nurse Jacintha Saldanha was laid to rest at a church in Shirva in Udupi district, 400 km west of Bangalore, on Monday. Thousands, including friends and family, attended the funeral.
Saldanha, 46, apparently committed suicide after becoming the victim of a prank call from two Australian radio jockeys to the London hospital where Prince William’s pregnant wife Kate Middleton was admitted.
Saldanha had transferred the prank call, believing they were the Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles, to a colleague who had described Middleton’s condition in detail. Saldanha was found hanging in her nurses’ quarters at King Edward VII hospital on December 7.
Her body was brought to Mangalore on Sunday after postmortem in the UK.
“The events have shattered our lives and we barely have any strength to grieve,” her husband Benedict Barboza and the couple’s two children, son Junal and daughter Lisha, said in a statement read by a family friend.
After the funeral in his native village, Barboza, 49, an accountant in the UK, told reporters, “The whole family is in a state of shock and we are trying to overcome it. The issue is being investigated by the concerned authorities in the UK and I will not comment on it. I will speak about it only after the investigation is over.”
{{/usCountry}}After the funeral in his native village, Barboza, 49, an accountant in the UK, told reporters, “The whole family is in a state of shock and we are trying to overcome it. The issue is being investigated by the concerned authorities in the UK and I will not comment on it. I will speak about it only after the investigation is over.”
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