HARARE – An attempted resurrection of a 16-year-old teenage girl who died on Monday had failed by Thursday morning, and her burial finally proceeded.

Deaphin Mutemeri’s burial on Wednesday was abandoned after self-styled prophets sensationally told her grieving relatives that she was alive moments before burial at Granville (Mbudzi) Cemetery in Harare.

Her body was returned home to Highfield where the seers conducted rituals throughout the night which failed to revive the teenager, whose body had spent two nights in a mortuary.

Deaphin, a Form 4 pupil at Kwayedza High School in Highfield, died suddenly on Monday after complaining of a headache. Her family reluctantly agreed to give members of a church sect a chance to revive her after they made extraordinary graveside claims that the family was about to bury the teen alive.

The group of seers conducted several rituals overnight Wednesday, but could not rouse her, instead they managed to prolong the family’s grief.

Deaphin’s family, with encouragement from the police, finally allowed her burial to proceed on Thursday morning.

The teen’s resurrection would have defied science. The resurrection miracle was performed by Jesus in the Bible, and self-styled prophets have been known to try to mimic it in staged events that have convinced no-one.