A grieving family saying good-bye to police officer who passed away last week got a rude awakening when the city decided to take his corpse during memorial services. Howard Wong told the Post that 10 minutes before his brother George's wake, "The Medical Examiner called us and said they need to reclaim the body. The Health Department had issues with the wording on the cause of death—that he died from exposure to 9/11 toxins—and they ordered the Medical Examiner's Office to do it over." more ›

The former emergency medical technician who took a photograph of a dead woman's body and then posted it on his Facebook page was sentenced to 200 hours of community service. Mark Musarella, 47, had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and managed to avoid a jail sentence; however, besides the community service, he must turn in his EMT license and never apply for another one again. more ›

The body of a 105-year-old woman has reportedly been kept on ice at the Gramercy Park Memorial Chapel because her grandnephew James Pollock refuses to let her be cremated. Ethel Baar asked to be cremated in her 1999 will, but Pollock says that "Jewish religion forbids cremation," according to court papers. Now the funeral home is asking a judge for help in figuring out what to do with Baar's body. "Ms. Baar's remains are not embalmed, and have been maintained in a refrigeration unit for a prolonged time period," funeral home lawyer Peter Shapiro wrote in court papers. "The passage of time has an inevitable impact on the remains." more ›

Not even the sweet release of death can liberate you from New York's relentless parking ticket blitz. Early Tuesday morning a traffic cop came across Nicholas Rappold, 21, of Flushing, who was slumped across the front seat of his Jeep Cherokee on 165th Street near 35th Avenue. Rappold was dead, but just because you've gone to your eternal resting place doesn't mean you can park it wherever you want. Dying drivers should really know this by now. more ›

Yesterday, a judge found Michael Chin Lenahan guilty of second degree murder for killing a woman in a Chinatown apartment in 2007. Lenahan was accused of strangling Lorna Santiago to death—and then sleeping in the same bed as her corpse for two days (her body was discovered by his mother). The trial was full of graphic details, for instance, Lenahan's prosecution revealed that he wore adult diapers and that Santiago called his private parts "shriveled." The Post reports the prosecution closed by showing a photograph of Santiago smiling, "Lorna Santiago goes into Michael Lenahan's home that night looking like this. And she came out looking like that!" then exhibiting "a ghastly coroner's photo of Santiago's decomposed face." more ›

Yesterday, the trial began for the Chinatown resident who prosecutors say killed a date and then kept her body in his bed while he searched online for ways to dispose of her body. Prosecutor Joan Illuzi-Orbon said that Michael Chin Lenahan bragged to a neighbor about the "girl" in his bed, but Lorna Santiago was dead: "As she lay next to him in the bed, he accessed web sites on how to preserve a dead body ... and visited sadomasochistic web sites." more ›

Funeral homes are illegally tricking New Yorkers into paying more than they should, according to a Department of Consumer Affairs investigation. In a two-month study, officials determined that 87 of the 579 funeral homes probed—or 15 percent—were overcharging customers by skirting strict city laws governing the funeral industry. more ›

On Monday morning, funeral director Paul DeNigris parked his Dodge minivan in a "No Parking Anytime" zone outside Redden's Funeral Home on West 14th Street, and went inside to take care of business. Sure, there was a dead body in the van, but DeNigris had slapped his "Funeral Director on Official Business" sign in the window. So you can imagine his surprise when he came back out to find the van and the corpse had vanished. We immediately thought ZOMBIE CARJACKING, but the NYPD says the van was ticketed at 9:22 a.m., and then towed nearly three hours later. Which may seem like a long time to leave a corpse behind, but hey, it wasn't as if the guy was going anywhere—or so DeNigris thought... more ›

This is really creepy, and extremely disturbing... but sadly, not that shocking. Mortuary technicians have been caught playing with the dead—and they even documented their deeds on Polaroid. According to the NY Post, the photos that have been released—allegedly by someone who was trying to blackmail the employees—were taken around 2004. more ›

The body of a man whom investigators believe may have been a stowaway was found in one of the landing gear compartments of a plane in Tokyo. Last night a mechanic found the man's body while performing maintenance on the Boeing 777-200; the plane had originated in New York as Delta Flight 59. There's little information about the dead man, who has been identified only as a 5'7" male with dark skin, clothed in a long-sleeved plaid shirt and jeans. The area he was found in is inaccessible from the inside of the plane, and does not have any air conditioning or pressurization. more ›

Early yesterday morning, a driver discovered a body wrapped in plastic under his car in the Greenwood Heights (or Sunset Park) section of Brooklyn. Ashraf Ali told the Post, "My friend looked out of the car and saw a leg sticking out. I thought he was joking." more ›

The family of a man who died in his sleep was so horrified by the condition of his corpse that they're suing a Bronx funeral home. The deceased, Fernando Maldonado, had various maladies at the time of his death, so an autopsy was performed to determine the exact cause. But when the wake was held at La Paz Funeral Home on June 1st, some 75 mourners were appalled to find his bluish body in a deplorable state, with a hole behind his right ear seeping blood, stains on the pillow, and wires that appeared to be autopsy sutures holding a loose flap of skin to the back of his hairline. The wake was interrupted three times as the funeral director tried to address complaints about the body's appearance, and one of the owners of La Paz blamed the corpse's condition on the medical examiner, telling CBS2, "We did the best we could." But a lawyer for Madonado's family says that if their loved one couldn't be made presentable, they should have been given the option of a closed casket. Madonado's brother says, "Everybody was shocked. Everybody kept asking 'was he killed? Was he hit in the head?'" more ›

After Miguel Olaya's wife lost her battle to pelvic cancer on March 28th, he made arrangements with a Bay Ridge funeral home to send the remains to their native Ecuador. Then he went ahead to make the funeral arrangements, but when he arrived at the airport in the city of Guayaquil, he was told that his wife's remains were, uh, lost. Care to guess which airline? Good old American, which has been in the news recently for its baggage issues. more ›

The charges have been dropped against the two men who were arrested for trying to cash a dead man’s $355 social security check. Back in January, David Daloia and James O'Hare made headlines with their foiled scheme to capitalize on O’Hare’s roommate’s death by pushing his corpse in an office chair up to a Pay-O-Matic check cashing joint in Hell’s Kitchen. They were arrested en route after a detective spotted the visibly deceased third man. more ›

The desperate antics of old-school Hell's Kitchen residents are still making news. James O'Hare and David Daloia were arraigned for forgery, petty larceny and other charges when they tried to cash in O'Hare's roommate's Social Security check - while O'Hare's dead roommate's body was in a chair outside the checking cashing place. more ›

James O’Hare and David Dalaia, both 65, were arrested after they wheeled in the corpse of O'Hare's roommate to a check cashing office, attempting to cash in O'Hare's dead roommate's Social Security check. With a roommate like this... more ›