Dad turns dead son into diamond

In a first-of-its-kind case in Italy, a grieving father had his dead son eternally preserved by getting the 20-year-old's ashes transformed into a diamond, Indian news agency PTI reported.

The father had his son's body exhumed and cremated before sending the ashes off to Switzerland so they could be compressed into the gemstone, the agency said.

According to the PTI report the young son, killed in a car crash earlier this year, had already been buried in his hometown of Treviso, in northern Italy, when his 55-year-old dad came up with the idea.

Remembrance diamonds are created by filtering and refining the carbon found in cremated ashes, then secured in a chamber, where intense pressure and a temperature similar to that of a volcano are applied, creating a synthetic diamond, 'The Local' reported.

The process can cost as much as $18,000, PTI quoting 'New York Daily News', said.

The father recently received the synthetic 'Remembrance Diamond' after an eight-month weight.