Posted on 08/21/2003 5:14:36 AM PDT by NewHampshireDuo
INDIAN ISLAND — The family of a Penobscot Indian wants the woman who dug up the ashes from his grave on the first anniversary of his death to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Doreen Neptune, 53, wanted to participate in a seance to mark the anniversary of the death of her boyfriend Johnny Love, Neptune's daughter, Greta, suggested.
Greta Neptune said her mother is being treated at Acadia Hospital, a psychiatric hospital in Bangor.
"I can't tell why it was done because I can't remember doing it," Doreen Neptune told the Bangor Daily News on Tuesday. "I've been mourning his death since he was in the hospital."
Neptune and Love dated for a decade and lived together on Indian Island before his death on Aug. 18, 2002, of acute liver failure from hepatitis.
Neptune said she visited Love's grave Sunday. "I remember lighting a candle and talking to him and smoking a cigarette with him. I lit him one and placed it on the ground and I rearranged the flowers," she said. "After that I don't remember anything. I downed a fifth (of coffee brandy)."
Around 3 a.m. Monday, Greta Neptune heard on the scanner that police were searching for her mother, who apparently showed up at the home of Love's sister, Emily, covered in dirt and ash.
Neptune apparently was carrying her boyfriend's ashes in a plastic bag in a ceremonial box in her pocketbook.
The case remained under investigation and Neptune's family expressed hope that no charges will be forthcoming.
Tribal prosecutor Peter Bos said digging up a human corpse is a Class D crime punishable by up to a year in jail and a $2,000 fine.
The Love family said it is devastated by the incident.
"She desecrated not just my brother's grave, she desecrated the whole family lot. The whole site," Richard Love said. "We just want justice."
It's probably tough when you lose your drinking partner.
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