Priest arrives for service to find coffin empty as dead man ‘might not be dead’ and mourners are paid actors

A priest turned up for a funeral, only to find the coffin was empty and the mourners were actors.

The bizarre incident left nearby residents baffled and the man who turned up to ordain the funeral “shaken.”

Father Rupert McHardy, 49, had prepared a sermon and was in his robes, ready to start the service at the London Oratory Roman Catholic church in South Kensington.

There was a horse-drawn hearse, two luxury vintage cars, men in top hats, a full choir and a church full of photos of a young man. There was a director filming the day.

However, Father McHardy was told by the choirmaster who told him the funeral was for Lauris Zaube, a 23-year-old Latvian man who was reported missing at New Year. It is unclear whether he is even dead, or whether his family are also innocent victims of the sinister scam.

The event was run by a man who claimed he was Lauris’ brother Clyde. He said Lauris was found frozen in ice. The funeral directors, T Cribb and Sons, were even provided with a death certificate, although it was allegedly from Russia.

However, while Lauris Zaube is a 23-year-old Latvian man who went missing after a New Year’s Eve party near an iced-over dam, his body has seemingly not yet been found and he doesn’t appear to have a brother called Clyde, reports MailOnline.

In another strange twist, Father McHardy said he believes the man who organised the funeral is actually a convicted paedophile, who GB News is not naming.

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Father McHardy told MailOnline: “The funeral [request] came in three or four weeks ago. We said, ‘is there a connection [to the church]?’ and they said yes, from someone proposing to be his brother, Clyde Zaube. He chose the readings. On the day of the funeral, it all started to unravel.

“The undertakers were going to collect the body and then at the last minute they were told, ”there is no body, we have ashes’.”

“There was another group of people in puffer jackets and balaclavas, Clyde Zaube included. They had hoods and dark glasses. They were sinister-looking. I tried to speak to this Clyde Zaube and he wouldn’t speak to me.

“It became clear he wasn’t who he claimed to be. It was all some sort of fake funeral. They pretended there was a body and mourners. One of the actors knew the name of the person who had contacted them to come.”

He added: “He’s quite an unpleasant character. I’m pretty sure he’s the one claiming to be Clyde Zaube. When I realised it wasn’t a real funeral we said we can’t do this.

“We told them to leave and they all left relatively happily. If they had been a real family they would have been weeping and crying. We were paid. The funeral directors were paid. We haven’t lost any money but it’s very, very weird. I was quite shaken afterwards. I felt very disturbed by it.

“No expense was spared – top hats, a horse-drawn hearse, two expensive vintage cars, a full choir. I was worried there was going to be some sort of violence. I thought, I have got to stop it because it’s all fake. It was very spooky.”

GB News has approached Riga Police for a comment.