Funeral home cut off man’s legs to fit body in coffin

AUTHORITIES revoked the licenses of a South Carolina funeral home and its director after he admitted one of his employees cut the legs of a 6ft 7in man without the family’s permission so that the corpse would fit in a casket.

The state Board of Funeral Service voted unanimously to close Cave Funeral Home in Allendale. It fined director Michael Cave $500 (€350) and ordered him to pay $1,500 (€1,050) for the investigation.

In an agreement with the board, Cave said employees never told James Hines’s family that his body might not fit in a standard casket. An unlicensed worker, Charles G Cave, cut the legs with an electric saw without consulting relatives. Hines’s widow has said his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf and put back in the coffin, but the document didn’t detail exactly what happened.

Evidence also has been turned over to criminal investigators. Under South Carolina law, destroying or desecrating human remains is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

Hines, 60, died in October 2004 of skin cancer. His wife, Ann Hines, said rumours about what happened to her husband’s body started spreading soon after he was buried.

Eventually a funeral service board investigator and county coroner exhumed Hines’s body.