Posted on 06/21/2013 7:33:40 AM PDT by JoeProBono
APPLE VALLEY Calif- Unable to pay for a funeral, an Apple Valley woman reportedly told sheriff's deputies she was forced to bury her husband in a shallow grave in the couple's backyard weeks after the man died, according to San Bernardino County Sheriff's officials. Investigators are trying to determine if the man died of natural causes.
The identity of the deceased man has not been released. The woman has also not been identified but neighbors and San Bernardino County property records show they are Thomas and Yvonne Winn.
"She's a really nice lady," said Colin Wilson who lives behind the Winns. "She would always wave to me every morning."
Apple Valley deputies were called out to a home in the 16000 block of Navajo Road around 1 p.m. Wednesday for a welfare check on a 63-year-old man, according to authorities.
At the home, deputies found the man's 59-year-old wife who told deputies her husband, who has not been identified, had died weeks earlier, according to sheriff's officials. Unable to pay for a funeral, she reportedly told officials she buried him in the backyard.
"I saw her kneel down near where the cops started digging and she just broke down," Wilson said. "She was obviously devastated."
The man's body was found in a shallow grave and his body did not appear to have any obvious signs of trauma, sheriff's officials said.
The woman was not arrested pending a cause of death ruling from the coroner, according to Cindy Bachman, spokeswoman for the sheriff's department.
Neighbors said the 63-year-old man had been ill for some time.
Touched by the woman's situation, Wilson and his sister, Emily Wilson, decided to set up an online fundraising account through Fundrazr.com where people can donate to help bury the woman's husband.
"I just feel terrible for her," he said. "I can't imagine what she went through."
In the first hour, the online fundraising effort had already raised $120.
Phyllis Jerscheid, owner of Jerschied's Men's Apparel in Victorville, said she would donate a suit to the Winns so he could be buried.
"This story just broke my heart,"Jerscheid said from her busy store on Hesperia Road. "I wanted to help in some small way."
The couple had recently purchased the home in November but moved in early this year, said Wilson, after some repairs had been made to the property.
"She was out there almost every day painting and fixing up that house all by herself," Wilson said. "She's a really strong lady."
A day after their neighborhood was overtaken by sheriff's investigators, news vans now lined Navajo Road.
"It's really weird to think that she was able to do this and no one saw anything," said Wilson as he stood in his back yard which faced the rear of the couple's home. "We all have chain link fences here and we can see right into each others back yards. I can't believe no one saw anything."
It's a violation of the state's health and safety code to bury a human body anywhere other than an approved and recognized cemetery.
To donate, visit, www.fundrazr.com and search Thomas Winn.
An unearthed, shallow grave remains in a woman's backyard in Apple Valley on Thursday, June 20, 2013. Unable to pay for a funeral, the Apple Valley woman reportedly told sheriff's deputies she buried her husband in the makeshift grave weeks after the man died, according to authorities. (Rachel Luna / Staff Photographer) (Rachel Luna)
Unable to pay for husband’s funeral, Apple Valley woman allegedy buries him in backyard
If it can be shown that he died of natural causes, my hope is that the authorities will give him a proper burial and leave the woman alone.
She did what she could for him.
Seems that we can not only no longer LIVE free, but we can’t die FREE either: even in death, we’re still bound by the dictates of nanny government. ..
That is criminal activity.
Used to be, you could just tuck Grandpa in somewhere in the south 40. Hardly cost a thing.
My wife and I both see our bodies as a shell we occupy. Once the body dies, it is is like a costume thrown away. It has no value whatsoever.
If my wife dies first, I will never visit her grave. There is nothing there for me.
My wife’s first husband died of Leukimia at the age of 27. She spread his ashes to the wind from a particular spot in the cascade mountains in Washington state. To this day his father is ticked at her that she has honored his wishes and told nobody where that spot is. Interestingly, she couldn’t find it if her life depended on it.
I really don’t have a problem with this, as long as a person is buried in a coffin I think.
I wouldn’t have a problem buying a house with the old folks buried in the yard, as long as they’re not next to the house and as long as they died of natural causes. ;)
What did we do before the price of a burial was such a rip off? What came naturally of course.
Used to be, you could just tuck Grandpa in somewhere in the south 40. Hardly cost a thing.
I hope Sunset Hills Memorial Park and Mortuary in Apple Valley will step in and help if there has been no foul play. Northeast corner of this high desert community with a nice chapel. Where Roy Rogers and Dale Evans are buried.
True. Well, it’s off to the government soylent factory, then.
I can’t fault her, she did what she could at the time. Its not easy to react calmly when you lose someone who is very close to you. If she had a large freezer she could have kept him on ice, like so many of the other stories I’ve read. I wonder how many more of these type stories will appear with the new Obama care in place? I’m sure the Gov’t. will come up with some kind of burial welfare entitlement check eventually.
Very sad, really. My sister was widowed last month. She had to dip into her retirement funds to give my brother-in-law a proper burial even after the rest of the family chipped in to help her as we could.
She got a cut-rate funeral service (Their slogan: "Haven't You Lost Enough Already?") and owned plots. The tab still came to $3500 or roughly half the cost of an average funeral without owned plots.
We lived in Japan for 14 years and I personally have no qualms about cremation. The Japanese actually have a commendable reverence for their dead-- showing up to clean and spruce up the family plot including rewriting the name stakes which have faded. They do this every year in a plot slightly larger than a telephone both and a marker about the size of typical suburban bird bath. Some of them even split the ashes between two plots-- one in their ancestral hometown and another near where they work and live.
Meanwhile, I've visited my Dad's grave about once in the last five years because the location is so remote even if the setting is beautiful and spacious. We send money to a family friend to decorate and take pictures.
The problem is that my wife, mother and many other Americans have a cultural taboo about cremation and, of course, the funeral industry promotes this as a way to jack up their profits. I can see common sense regulations such as prohibiting burials on a hillside subject to erosion and landslides or places likely to pollute the water supply. But the results for minimum gave sites sizes, vaults, etc. go way beyond the pale.
These health and Safety Codes prohibiting burials other than a cemetary are nothing more than payoff laws made for the Funeral lobby.
When my first wife died I was amazed at how difficult it is to check out. I needed countless official death certificates for probate, life insurance, pension, auto titles even my kids college. Without an official finding this woman won’t have death certificates. I’m very sorry for her anguished decision.
“wife, mother and many other Americans have a cultural taboo”
It’s contrary to Christian teachings. I would sooner violate the law of the state regarding cemetary burial than violate the law of God against cremation.
But the resultslaws in place for minimum gave sites sizes, vaults, etc. go way beyond the pale.
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