Man’s body left on front porch after funeral home isn’t paid

By Connie Farrow

Associated Press

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A World War II veteran’s corpse was left on his front porch after a funeral home wasn’t paid for his cremation.

The man’s girlfriend, Nancy King, says she returned home after picking up a gallon of milk Friday to find a white bag containing the body of 74-year-old Robert Holder, who had died the previous week.

She said Hathaway Peterman Funeral Home returned the body to the house she and Holder had shared in the central Missouri town of Cross Timbers.

"I’m just devastated," King said Monday. "As soon as I pulled up to the house, I knew what they’d done. He was there, lying on my front porch. … I could see his blue nightgown through the bag."

Funeral director Gary Peterman of Hathaway Peterman declined Monday to discuss King’s allegation.

"I think out of respect to Mr. Holder, let’s just let this issue drop," he said.

The state Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors, which licenses funeral homes in Missouri, was looking into the matter. The funeral home could face punishment ranging from a disciplinary letter to revocation of its license if the accusations are true, executive director Pat Handly said.

King said Holder, who had served in the Army, had been released Sept. 26 from a veterans hospital and died of prostate cancer two days later.

"He knew he didn’t have long to live, and he didn’t want to die in the hospital," King said.

King said she told Holder’s daughter in Oklahoma, his closest surviving relative, that he had died and had wished to be cremated.

But the question of the $1,200 payment was apparently complicated by King’s strained relationship with Holder’s relatives. Because she was not married to Holder, she could not grant permission for cremation.

Jim Miller of Reser Funeral Home in nearby Warsaw picked up the body after it was left on the porch. It will remain refrigerated until Miller can get permission to cremate Holder.

"I’ve been in this business 30 years, but I’ve never seen anything like this," Miller said. "It’s something that should have never happened."

"I’m not worried about the money. We’ll cover the expenses," Miller said. "I just want to make this thing right."

Under state law, the funeral home is supposed to contact the county coroner if a body is not claimed by a relative.