The case of a staged £10,000 fake funeral at a London church took a new twist today – as the body of the man who was supposedly to be buried that day was discovered in a river in Latvia.
Details of the Incident
The infamous funeral was one that sparked international media attention last month when it emerged that the presiding priest had dramatically stopped the service – upon realising that it was being filmed, and that the mourners were paid actors and the coffin was empty.
The name used for the ‘dead man’ at the fake funeral was Lauris Zaube – a 23 year old Latvian man who had been missing since the early hours of 1 January.
How Lauris Zaube Went Missing
Now, Zaube’s body has been found believed drowned after he wandered off alone from a New Year’s Eve party in the Baltic country.
Lauris had vanished from the party attended by 80 people which took place at a hired guest house in the hamlet of Straupciems on a remote island around 20 miles from Riga, the capital of Latvia.
Obviously, the people who used his name to stage the elaborate funeral must have known about his death, perhaps?
About Jacky Jhaj
Jacky Jhaj was the organiser, a convicted sex offender, who has on at least two occasions posed as a film producer or film star – once hiring dozens of young extras to shoot a fake film premier in Leicester Square to boost his online following.
Sexual predator Jhaj was jailed for four years in 2016 for four counts of sexual activity with two 15-year-old girls.
He pretended to be a top Hollywood film producer as he befriended the girls, plying them with alcohol and giving them lifts to parties, before sexually assaulting them.
How Jhaj Staged the Funeral
The name Jhaj used for the supposed dead person when booking the Oratory was that of Zaube – the 23 year old Latvian missing since the early hours of New Year’s Day – and he pretended to be Lauris’s mourning brother during the event.
But despite having been supposedly ‘buried’ that day, Lauris was still missing – until it emerged today that his body has finally been found in a river in Latvia.
Did Lauris and Jhaj Worked Together to Fake His Disappearance?
Last month, it was revealed that Lauris and Jhaj were previously known to each other after they appeared alongside one another in a music video – which sparked speculation Lauris may still be alive.
But the grim discovery of his drowned body effectively quashes speculation that the young man had cooperated with Jhaj to fake his disappearance for the fake funeral.
And it also effectively proves that Jhaj had lied when he told undertakers and church officials that he would bring cremated remains to the funeral service.
Lauris’ family had held out hope that he might have wandered off after suffering a mental breakdown or some form of amnesia, possibly after banging his head. But these were dashed when his body was discovered last week.
The funeral directors who arranged the service in March were initially told by Jhaj that they would be collecting a body and a place was reserved for burial at Brompton Cemetery in Fulham, West London about a mile from the London Oratory Church.
But the day before the funeral at the Catholic Church they were told they had to collect cremated remains from the family home of the victim.
Jhaj pretended to funeral directors that he was a brother of Lauris called Clyde, even though the Latvian does not have a brother of that name.
It’s Not His First Time
The funeral hoax, however, was not the first event Jhaj had created.
In November he staged a fake red carpet outside the Odeon Luxe cinema in London’s Leicester Square involving dozens of young children and teenagers hired as supposed film extras.
The child actors, some aged as young as six in school uniforms, were asked to pretend to faint as Jhaj paraded up and down in a red tuxedo as if he were a film star at a premier.
Police have since launched a fraud investigation case.
Lauris is believed to have drowned after accidentally falling in after leaving the party near the Latvian capital Riga.
