2 ladies drove a person’s physique to a financial institution to withdraw his cash, Ohio police say

ASHTABULA, Ohio (AP) — Two Ohio ladies have been accused of driving the physique of a deceased 80-year-old man to a financial institution to withdraw cash from his account earlier than dropping his physique off at a hospital.

Karen Casbohm, 63, and Loreen Bea Feralo, 55, have been charged Tuesday in Ashtabula with gross abuse of a corpse and theft from an individual in a protected class, in response to Ashtabula Municipal Courtroom information.

Police mentioned they have been known as Monday night and instructed that two ladies had dropped off a physique on the Ashtabula County Medical Heart emergency room with out figuring out the individual or themselves. Just a few hours later, one in every of them contacted the hospital with info on the deceased, who was then recognized as 80-year-old Douglas Layman of Ashtabula.

Officers responded to Layman’s residence and made contact with Casbohm and Feralo, who instructed them that they had discovered Layman deceased earlier on the house the place all three resided. Police allege that, with the assistance of a 3rd unnamed individual, they positioned Layman within the entrance seat of his automobile and drove to a financial institution the place they withdrew “an undisclosed amount of cash” from his account.

Layman’s physique “was positioned within the automobile in such a way that he could be seen to financial institution workers with the intention to make the withdrawal,” Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell mentioned in a information launch Thursday. Stell instructed the (Ashtabula) Star Beacon that the financial institution ”had allowed this beforehand so long as they have been accompanied by him.”

Lt. Mike Palinkas instructed WEWS-TV that one of many ladies had been in a live-in relationship with Layman for a number of years whereas the opposite had been staying there for a couple of months. The ladies mentioned it was regular for them to take cash from the account, however Palinkas mentioned he did not have a full rationalization for why they went there that day.

“Allegedly, they needed to pay some payments however exterior of that, there wasn’t a selected motivation supplied,” Palinkas mentioned.

Casbohm was arraigned and ordered held on $5,000 bond whereas Feralo is scheduled for arraignment subsequent week. It is unclear whether or not they have attorneys; numbers listed of their names had been disconnected. A message was despatched to the county public defender’s workplace looking for remark if the workplace was defending one or each.

Police mentioned they proceed to research and different expenses are doable. The coroner’s workplace mentioned an post-mortem to find out the reason for Layman’s demise may take as much as eight months.