Amtrak Passenger Rides 23 Hours After Death

The Indy Channel ^ | September 6, 2006 | AP

[Abathar]

Daughter Wanted To Save Money On Shipping Dad's Body

CHICAGO -- Police said a suburban Chicago woman traveling on Amtrak with her ailing father waited up to 23 hours and about 1,000 miles to tell authorities that the man died on the train.

The Cook County, Ill., medical examiner said 80-year-old Daniel Stepanovich, of Hammond, Ind., was pronounced dead just after midnight Tuesday. Stepanovich died from heart disease and cancer, according to an autopsy conducted by the Cook County medical examiner.

His daughter told officials that her father died Sunday evening, just as the eastbound train was pulling into Glenwood Springs, Colo. She said she didn't tell anyone because she couldn't afford to ship his body home to Chicago.

The woman has not been named.

The woman and her father boarded the cross-country train in the San Francisco area, according to KMGH-TV in Denver. The California Zephyr travels from Emeryville, Calif., to Chicago.

A neighbor said the father, who had been diagnosed with cancer, had talked of taking "one last train ride."

[Abathar]

I bet a lot of people would do this if it happened, to be honest it probably saved her several $K and she DID pay for the ticket.....

[silverleaf]

Sounds like a great story for a Hollywood movie. Ridin' on that midnight train to Georgia!

"Well did he ever return? No he never returned!"

[Froufrou]

It evidently didn't creep out any other passengers. But it's not a good thing to go without embalming.

[GSlob]

"to be honest it probably saved her several $K and she DID pay for the ticket....."
Yes, but he must have been put in the baggage. She violated the regulations.

[synbad600]

Apparently the other passengers thought they were traveling with Al Gore, as no one noticed the stiffness.

[neodad]

Was his name Fidel?

[stm]

I can see it now, "Bernie takes the train"

[Rb ver. 2.0]

[Darnright]

>"Well did he ever return? No he never returned!"<

Kingston Trio bump!

[Abathar]

Its only for 23 hours, as long as he didn't start leaking and she had a flyswatter things should be ok.....

[albee]

" Apparently the other passengers thought they were traveling with Al Gore, as no one noticed the stiffness."

Synbad, you are sooooo bad.....but funny!

[1rudeboy]

First person ever to punch his own ticket on the train.

[Patrick1]

Unusual for the passenger to die before an Amtrak crash, talk about thinking ahead.

[twigs]

I used to work in tourism. A woman told us about a motorcoach tour for senior citizens on which a tourist died. No one said anything, although they knew about it, becasue they didn't want anything to interrupt their tour.

[HIDEK6]

I played an 80th birthday party in a retirement home once and was instructed, in case someone died, to keep playing.

The hostess said, "Around here, people die all the time."

[Lancey Howard]

Was his name "Vincent"?

[ArGee]

What was that old internet joke about a memo from management that employees were refusing to fall over after they died?

Shalom.

[paradoxical]

At the risk of sounding macabre,(which is redundant for this thread), I traveled on the California Zephyr with my son a few years ago. The scenery between Glenwood Springs and Denver is very beautiful. You spend the whole day going through canyons that are spectacular. They even have a guide that narrates the trip. The high point so to speak is the Moffitt (sp) tunnel, where the train travels 1500 feet deep through the middle of the mountain

[VRWCmember]

Amtrak: People are just dying to ride with us.

[FroedrickVonFreepenstein]

Next stop Willoughby!