Man Arrested After Police Say He Kept Wife’s Dead Body in Living Room for Months
John Emrich was arrested on charges of abuse of a corpse
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John Emrich.Credit :
Hardin County Detention Center
A Kentucky man was arrested after police allege he kept his wife’s body on the couch in their home for months after she died.
John Emrich, 59, was taken into custody on Friday, June 19 on charges of abuse of a corpse.
According to a police citation obtained by PEOPLE, Emrich “intentionally treated a corpse in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.”
The Hardin County Sheriff’s Office received a call on June 17 from a niece who allegedly told authorities that she hadn’t spoken to her 61-year-old aunt Veronica since January.
“She had been calling for her, but she was never able to talk to her aunt,” Hardin County Sheriff John Ward tells PEOPLE. “She tried to contact her by Facebook and her aunt had quit responding.”
According to Ward, deputies went to the couple’s home in Radcliff, but nobody answered the door. “And under those circumstances, there’s no other information that would warrant breaking into the house.”
The following day, Emrich’s niece, with the assistance of police, went to the home on Homestead Avenue.
The niece went inside the home and Emrich allegedly “showed her where her aunt was,” says Ward. “Her aunt was laying on the couch in the residence, was covered in blankets. And, she was deceased and had been deceased for quite some time. It was later discovered that she had been dead since February.”
According to Ward, Emrich said “he didn’t want to be without her. And he had been putting some type of laundry detergent on her to control the odor.”
Ward says the case is still under investigation.
“There’s possibly other charges that will be coming,” he says. “But it’s all indications from the coroner’s office, it is believed that she did die of natural causes.”
Emrich was arraigned on June 22 and a judge set his bond at $5,000 cash only, WDRB reported. He remains behind bars at the Hardin County Detention Center.
