Two Ohio women discovered that their elderly roommate had died in the home they all shared, but instead of immediately reporting it, they placed his body in a vehicle, propped it up, and drove to a bank where they used his corpse to withdraw money from his bank account, authorities say.
The pair is now facing charges of theft and gross abuse of a corpse, according to the Ashtabula Police Department.
The women, identified as Loreen Feralo and Karen Casbohm, found 80-year-old Douglas Layman “dead inside his residence where they both had also been residing,” police said. With the help of an unnamed third person, authorities say, “they placed Mr. Layman in the front seat of his car and then drove to the bank where they withdrew an undisclosed amount of money from his account. It is further alleged that Mr. Layman was placed in the vehicle in such a manner that he would be visible to bank staff in order to make the withdrawal.”
Police Chief Robert Stell told the local Star Beacon that “the bank had allowed this previously as long as they were accompanied by him.”
After visiting the bank, the two women are said to have left his body at the emergency room at the Ashtabula County Medical Center, but did not identify him or themselves. Preliminary hearings for the two women are scheduled for Tuesday.
