9
Wendy never ceased to be amazed at the work which could be done on a dead body to make it appear at least a little less dreadful than it had before. In the case of the body they presumed to be Matthew Hulford, it had been prepared for identification by his parents by heavily cushioning the back of his head and leaving only his face and the front of his hair visible. The drape had been brought right up to his chin, hiding the s***h wound across his neck. The back of his head, and other areas of his body which had received heavy blows had been covered, so as to protect his dignity and the memories of his parents.
In some more extreme cases, visual identification by the family wouldn’t be possible under any circumstances, and DNA matches had to be relied on. But Matthew’s parents had spec
