Woman kept dead husband, sister in home

[Froogy]

UPDATED: Police offered little in terms of explanation as to why a 91-year-old Wyalusing Township woman kept the bodies of her deceased husband and twin sister in her home.





During a press conference this afternoon in Towanda, state police said they interviewed the woman, Jean Stevens, but declined to say what she told them regarding the bodies of her husband, James Stevens, and sister, June.
James Stevens died in 1999 and police believe his body was removed from his grave shortly after he was buried in Lime Hill Cemetery in Wyalusing, not far from the Stevens’ home. His body was in a garage at the property rolled up in a rug.
June Stevens, who lived in West Hartford, Conn., died Oct. 3, 2009, and was initially buried on the Stevens’ property in Bradford County. Her body was found in spare bedroom inside the Stevens home.
Both bodies are now in the care of the Bradford County Coroner but it was unclear at the press conference what will happen to them next.
Jean Stevens is not charged with any crimes, state police said.
Officials at the press conference noted that suspects dug up the bodies on Jean Stevens’ behalf, but that part of the investigation is ongoing. They may face misdemeanor charges or summary violations.
The mummified remains were discovered Tuesday after police conducted a search of the property.
According to court documents filed in Pennsylvania, two workers from the Area Agency on Aging contacted state police to report that Jean Stevens’ home contained the body of her husband and sister.
Jean Stevens showed the workers the body of her sister and told them her husband’s body was rolled up in a rug on the premises, according to the document.
The agency workers told state police that “Mrs. Stevens is in control of her mental faculties (other than her acts of keeping the bodies in her home).”
Jean Stevens told the workers that received help to disinter her husband’s body from an unnamed cemetery years ago. She said she retrieved her sister’s body from its grave shortly after burial in October 2009.
State police in Towanda said the remains of two people were found at a house on Old Stagecoach Road at about 3 p.m. Tuesday following the execution of a search warrant.
District Attorney Dan Barrett said Wednesday his office is not involved in a criminal homicide investigation. He declined to answer other questions.

Woman kept dead husband, sister in home | pressconnects.com | Press & Sun-Bulletin

[Grimmlok]

she was lonely

[Brookie]

So she just walked over to the graves with a shovel and dug both of them up? Nobody at the cemetary missed 'em? Nobody noticed a big hole?

[Dean James]

For the elderly, I can totally understand a story like this and I go, oh... poor lonely people. It's only a hot mess if it's all Bates Motel and 'hello, mother.'

[McJag]

Lord have mercy!

[scooter]

She dug up her sister when she was 90 years old and dragged the corpse home all by herself? She had help....

[Brookie]

From Dr. Frankstein and Igor, no doubt.

[scooter]

That's Eye-gore... Dr Frahnkenstein....walk this way...
This way, this way...
Young Frankenstein for those too young....

[Brookie]

Yep!! ^

[cmmdee]

So why are the people charged and not her. Technically she DID abuse a corpse by keeping it rolled up in a rug, even if it was her hubs!

[greysfang]

Awww, this is so sad.

[OrangeSlice]

I guess this kills any real estate value...


Pa. widow builds vault, could get corpses back



AP – FILE - In This June 25, 2010 file photo, Jean Stevens, 91, holds a photograph from the 1940s of herself …
By MICHAEL RUBINKAM, Associated Press Michael Rubinkam, Associated Press – Tue Jan 4, 6:15 am ET
WYALUSING, Pa. – It looks like Jean Stevens will be reunited with the two people she loved so much that she wanted them to keep her company after they died.
The 91-year-old widow who lived with the embalmed corpses of her husband and twin sister — until authorities found out and took them away — is hopeful they'll be returned soon.
Workmen at Stevens' rural property outside the northern Pennsylvania town of Wyalusing have been busy the past few months, erecting a gabled building with gray siding and a white door. It resembles an oversized shed, or a smaller version of Stevens' detached garage.
In reality, it's a mausoleum that Stevens intends as the final resting place of her husband of nearly 60 years, James Stevens, and her twin, June Stevens. And authorities have told her it's the only way she can get them back.
She can't wait.
"I think about them all the time," Stevens told The Associated Press a few days before Christmas, "and I always will."
The coroner, she said, "has them up there in the cold box, which makes me shiver. He says, 'They're all right, Jean, you don't have to worry about them.'"
Stevens had their bodies dug up shortly after they died — James in 1999, June in 2009 — because she couldn't bear not being able to see them again. She kept her husband on a couch in the garage, and her sister in a spare room off the bedroom, where "I could touch her and look at her and talk to her," Stevens told AP last summer.
"Death is very hard for me to take," she added then.
Stevens' tale touched a chord. She estimates she received about 70 letters from around the world, most of them expressing well-wishes and sympathy. She's written back to some. One of her new pen pals mailed a Christmas package with fruitcake, mints, and a holiday tin stuffed with Chex mix. "Dearest Jean," wrote her correspondent, "you've sent us a Christmas treasure, your letter!"
Stevens also knows that some people think she's strange. She laughs heartily as she leafs through a pair of supermarket tabloids that had blared her story. She says Jay Leno once cracked a joke about her.
But it's Stevens who may get the last laugh.
Bradford County authorities, who have been storing the bodies in the morgue since they took them away in June, have told Stevens she can have them back if she builds an aboveground vault.
Coroner Tom Carman said he plans to release them once it's completed.
"I want to get Jimmy and June back to her just as soon as I possibly can," he said.
Carman has struck up an unusual friendship with Stevens. He's spent hours listening to her talk, mainly about the past. "She's a wonderful lady," he said.
Stevens plans to place her husband and sister in body bags with clear panels, so she can see their faces.

The mausoleum is large enough to hold as many as eight bodies. Stevens said she'd like to transfer the remains of several loved ones to the crypt, including those of her long-deceased mother and father.
One of the spots will be reserved. "She means to be placed there, as well," Carman said. "She's made that very clear."

[Brookie]

Okay, this is totally creepy. She wants to be placed there as well? So she can be seen by WHO? Who's going to be the crypt-keeper when she kicks? Screw loose.

[Charmed Hour]

She really needs psychiatric help in dealing with her grief.

[baked_tater]

Well its her money, what I find creepy are the penpals. Fruitcake, really?