12 months ago
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- An Alabama funeral director could lose his license if convicted on a felony charge of abusing a corpse.
Police in the town of Gadsden say Harold Watson left the decaying body of a woman inside a locked hearse after her relatives failed to pay the bill.
Fifty-two-year-old Edna Kathleen Woods died of natural causes in November 2007.
Investigators say Watson stored the corpse at his funeral home for more than a year but decided to move it about two months ago when he couldn't locate the family.
After neighbors complained, officers found the remains this week in a cardboard box inside a locked hearse.
In cases of unclaimed bodies, funeral directors can have counties dispose of the remains. And police say Wright should have known better.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
