THE body of a California man headed for burial in his native Mexico mistakenly ended up in Greece and weeping relatives only discovered the mix-up when they opened the casket and found a stranger inside.

　　Robert Castaneda’s family, who raised US$8,000 to bring back the body of their 68-year-old patriarch to a final resting place, were shocked to find a dead African-American man with a cigar and a book displaying a picture of the World Trade Center.

　　Castaneda died 10 days ago in California and his relatives thought they had flown the body back to his hometown of Apatzingan in the Mexican state of Michoacan. They realized, however, it was the wrong cadaver when they opened the casket .

　　Delta Air Lines officials phoned the family to inform them Castaneda’s body had somehow ended up in Greece. That casket was flown to New York and scheduled to arrive in San Francisco Monday along with the mystery cadaver, whose identity was not known.

　　(SD-Agencies)