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.
The government is just upset because it couldn’t reach into the dead man’s pants and steal his wallet.
“It’s contrary to Christian teachings.”
How?
“It’s contrary to Christian teachings. I would sooner violate the law of the state regarding cemetery burial than violate the law of God against cremation.”
Can you please tell me which scripture prohibits cremation?
How so?
I know a lot of people feel that way and I respect those feelings. The big government-funeral industry alliance have, unfortunately, exploited those feelings as a way to line their pockets.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan and many other Asian country have millions of Christians where cremation is the only option. I don't think Jesus Christ considers them any less Christian by the way they lived their lives just because their burial options were limited.
When I got my seven copies, I got on the horn to the regional manager, tore her a new a-hole, and had the additional copy hand delivered the next day.
I can't say enough bad about Forest Lawn.
a little cheaper...but cremation usually still requires you buy a coffin. go figure.
cremation isn’t just throwing a body in a shalow hole. she would have had wildlife digging that body up and leaving parts all over.
i didn’t get the impression anyone was going to go after her for this from what was posted.
ph
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.
she would have had wildlife digging that body up and leaving parts all over.
I'm seriously considering opening up a Japanese style cemetery as I see the cremation trend definitely as a growth industry, but I'll bet there would be a maze of regulations to make ensure the industry-big government alliance still gets their cut.
I would think Chet Hitt (owner & former family member)would help if he knew of the story. He's rarely in AV these days, however.
Your logic is correct, but again it is a cultural thing. People would be far less grossed out by cow remains washing down a hillside than by human remains.
So, yes, I am willing to cut the big government-funeral industry alliance a little slack for common sense regulations and the fact that our culture still respects humans more than cows. But no more.
“Japan, Korea, Taiwan and many other Asian country have millions of Christians where cremation is the only option. I don’t think Jesus Christ considers them any less Christian by the way they lived their lives just because their burial options were limited.”
The idea higher up in the thread is that ‘the body is nothing and the soul is everything’. Christians believe that the body is an essential part, and we believe in bodily resurrection. So - whenever possible a Christian should preserve the body in it’s final state.
Law prohibiting Christian burial are unjust laws and should be disregarded.
How sad. Please say a prayer for her.
Government....in the days of the old west the dearly departed were lucky to be laid to rest with a tombstone. These days, TPTB would rather use them as Soylent Green The NSA bldg in SA is perhaps the ‘Carousel” (A la Logans Run) A round in a square so to speak
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