cremation

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What Is Going On With Colorado Funeral Homes?

Cops say ex-funeral home director there kept a corpse in his hearse for 2 years

(Newser) - A former funeral home owner accused of hiding a woman's corpse in the back of a hearse for two years and hoarding the cremated remains of at least 30 people has been arrested, authorities said. Thursday night's arrest of Miles Harford, 33, is the latest allegation of misconduct...

Vatican Bends Its Rules Regarding Ashes of the Dead

Families may request to keep a small portion, so long as the rest resides in a sacred space

(Newser) - The Vatican has slightly softened its stance when it comes to the ashes of the dead, saying Tuesday that Catholic families may keep a small portion of their relative's cremated ashes in a "place of significance" to them rather than in a church or cemetery. It's the...

Hilaree Nelson Given a Sherpa Cremation

The ski mountaineer died in a Sept. 26 fall

(Newser) - Hilaree Nelson died on Sept. 26 after falling thousands of feet when a small avalanche struck as she skied down the 26,781-foot Manaslu in Nepal. On Sunday, she received a traditional funeral at a Sherpa cremation ground in that country. The AP reports family, friends, mountaineers, and government officials...

There Is a Single Public Funeral Pyre in America

But you have to be a resident of Saguache County, Colorado, to use it

(Newser) - If the term "funeral pyre" conjures up images of traditional Hindu burnings in India, know that there's at least one public pyre that's closer to home. That fact comes to light in a New York Times piece on the death of Dr. Philip Incao, who chose to...

What She Realized While Traveling With Her Brother's Ashes

What Monica Corcoran Harel was looking for she found closer to home

(Newser) - Grief is complicated, but Monica Corcoran Harel's piece for the Cut on her older brother's death—and her travels with his remains—is as smooth as it is poignant. She explains that Robert never left the US during his life, though their dad went so far as to...

Murder After Chinese Family Needed a Body to Cremate

They wanted to bury their son, but the body swap took a grim turn

(Newser) - In some parts of China, particularly densely populated ones, burials are not permitted. The BBC reports one family's desire to get around this ended in murder. The case is only now coming to light and involves a family living in Shanwei city in Guangdong province who wanted to be...

After Grisly Gang Rape, a Forced 3am Cremation

Family says police burned Indian victim's body without permission

(Newser) - Activists in India are urging police to explain the "inhumane decision" to cremate the body of a rape victim against her family's wishes—and after family members protesting the decision were allegedly beaten. The 19-year-old victim was a Dalit, meaning from the country's lowest caste. She spent...

Funeral Home to Nearly 100 Families: Uh, Hello?

Hamilton's Funeral Home in Des Moines is trying to unload people's ashes

(Newser) - An Iowa funeral home is calling on families to pick up the unclaimed cremated remains of nearly 100 people that it has been keeping in a locked closet for years, some since the mid-1990s, the AP reports. Lanae Strovers, of Hamilton's Funeral Home in Des Moines, told TV station...

Report: Luke Perry's Ashes Scattered on His Farm

TMZ says actor was cremated, and remains spread over his beloved Tennessee property

(Newser) - The initial confusion around Luke Perry's apparent burial appears to have been cleared up with a report he wasn't buried at all. Perry, who died March 4 after suffering a massive stroke, was cremated and his ashes spread over his Tennessee farm—"the place he most cherished,...

Scientists Discover Who's Buried at Stonehenge
Scientists Discover Who's
Buried at Stonehenge
new study

Scientists Discover Who's Buried at Stonehenge

Number of people from South Wales is a 'surprise'

(Newser) - Ever wonder who's buried at Stonehenge? Maybe not, but some of them apparently came from a ways off—which adds to our understanding of Stonehenge and shows how 5,000-year-old cremated remains can still be analyzed, the Guardian reports. A new study finds that 10 out of 25 remains...

Bourdain's Ashes to Head Stateside
Bourdain's
Ashes to Head
Stateside

Bourdain's Ashes to Head Stateside

CNN confirms chef was cremated in France

(Newser) - Anthony Bourdain was cremated in France on Wednesday, with his ashes to be sent to the US on Friday, a week after the beloved chef was found hanged, People reports, citing a source. A CNN rep confirms Bourdain has been cremated, per E! News . Bourdain had been in France filming...

Why More People Are Storing Their Dead at Home

Cremation has seen a resurgence in America

(Newser) - Visit someone's home nowadays and you may notice their dead loved one—on a shelf, on the floor, or wherever. "They are in my house," says Ellen Herman, an LA ad saleswoman, of her deceased parents. "Actually, in my bedroom! In boxes, under a bunch of...

'Like a Horror Story': Woman's Body Mistakenly Cremated

Family says funeral home then presented 2 different bodies as Sandra Bennett

(Newser) - The first body the funeral home showed them wasn't Sandra Bennett. Neither was the second. CBC reports a Canadian funeral home is under investigation after Bennett's family says it mistakenly cremated her body after she died in December at the age of 65 and then presented two other...

More than 2K Pieces of the 'Buddha' Found in Box in China

Also 260 statues and pieces of an ancient temple

(Newser) - When Siddhartha Gautama, aka the Buddha, died 2,600 years ago, legend has it that he was cremated and his remains split up among eight royal families, then eventually dispersed to several different countries. Now scientists in Jingchuan County, China, say they've found a box with thousands of pieces...

Dissident's Burial at Sea Has Unintended Consequence

Activists say it has created a global memorial

(Newser) - Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo's supporters say that in casting his ashes into the sea , the Chinese government hoped to deprive them of a permanent resting place to hold dear. What it did instead was create the world's biggest memorial, say those supporters, who plan to gather next to...

Navy Will Scatter Vet's Ashes at Site of Worst US Sub Disaster

'He felt he should have gone down with the Thresher'

(Newser) - For a half-century after the deadliest submarine disaster in US history, Navy Capt. Paul "Bud" Rogers struggled with feelings that it should have been him—and not his last-minute replacement—on the doomed voyage of the USS Thresher in which 129 men died. This week, at his family's...

Texas Rules Fetal Remains Must Be Buried, Cremated

Whether they're from miscarriages or abortions, no matter the gestational age

(Newser) - Texas women came forward earlier this month to tell their miscarriage and abortion stories to fend off proposed new funerary rules for embryonic and fetal tissue, but sharing their experiences apparently fell short of the mark. Per state health officials, starting Dec. 19, hospitals, abortion clinics, and other facilities will...

Scattering Ashes a Big No-No, Says Vatican

Keeping an urn full of ashes isn't allowed, either

(Newser) - Keeping the cremated ashes of a loved one in an urn on your mantel is officially against the rules for Catholics. New guidelines from the Vatican state that ashes must never be scattered or kept by family members, but held in a "sacred place" like a cemetery, reports the...

Thief May Have Thought Human Ashes Were Drugs

Mass. woman says her mom's remains were stolen out of her Jeep

(Newser) - A woman whose mother's ashes were stolen from her car fears an addict stole and ingested them thinking they were drugs, the AP reports. Carolyn Parker tells the Enterprise of Brockton, Mass., the ashes were in a plastic bag inside a small white box in her glove compartment. They...

Family Sues Mortuary After Body Left in Garage 2 Years

Remains of 3 others were also found

(Newser) - After 50-year-old Brigitte Godfrey died of an asthma attack in March of 2013, her family contacted Living Waters Funeral Home near Chicago to cremate the body, reports Courthouse News Service . That never happened: Two years later, Godfrey's corpse was found with three other bodies and a bag of organs...

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