..hmmmm....I can understand smuggling...but with a sealed US Military Casket? Now that's sick!
There have been some low-life undertakers that saved a few bucks by dumping bodies instead of processing & burying them....
That would be hard to pull of if it was a K.I.A. The soldiers are taken home with escort. Escort stays for duration of burial. But yes there are some sicko's out there. A Georgia/Tennessee based operator comes to mind as a most recent case. A family ran funeral home who did cremations IIRC. The furnace had issues and the owner did illegal disposals. A military coffin says Killed In Action or died on active duty. Or as another poster pointed out likely a transport coffin instead.