An unexpected surprise unfolded at a funeral in the Dominican Republic as a dead man appeared to open his eyes inside his coffin, leaving mourners shocked at what they witnessed.
The deceased was draped in white and lay in a coffin with a glass window over his face.
He was surrounded by loved ones who attended the ceremony to pay their respects.
However, according to witnesses, his eyelids appeared to flicker, and it left many in disbelief at seeing a dead man open his eyes.
Photos from the funeral captured the unsettling moment. In one image, the man’s eyes appeared peacefully shut, but in another, they seemed partially open.
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“Who knows if he’s fighting for his life?” one family member reportedly said, and it raised concerns among the relatives.
Some of the attendees at the funeral suggested calling an ambulance to confirm if he was still alive.
Others however stated that it could just be an unexpected flash in the moment.
“Post-mortem muscle memory—it presents itself in some corpses”, one attendee said.
Another relative dismissed the incident as an optical illusion caused by mobile phone flashlights and said, “It’s the reflection of the mobile phone torches, look again.”
Mourners at the funeral could not hold back their words as debates began to unfold at the grounds.
“He opened them when he remembered he left his mobile phone behind and didn’t lock it,” one joked. Another quipped, “He’s checking to see who came to his funeral.”
The incident brings back memories of similar cases from recent years.
In 2023, a 49-year-old Thai woman, Chataporn Sriphonla, was believed to have died while being transported from a hospital to her home in Udon Thani province.
Reports indicate that while on the way to a temple, Chataporn unexpectedly gasped and opened her eyes, leaving her companions in utter shock.
A similar occurrence unfolded in 2020 in Michigan when a 20-year-old woman with special needs was declared dead but showed signs of life at a funeral home just before being embalmed.
“They were about to embalm her…had her eyes not been open, they would have begun draining her blood,” attorney Geoffrey Fieger said at the time.
These shocking incidents have led to many reactions on social media, and it has left families and communities questioning the borders between life and death.