[Update Below] The family of the 73-year-old woman who died after she was set on fire in a Prospect Heights elevator earlier this month still haven't been able to bury her—and even the people who pledged to help them haven't done so. The family of Deloris Gillespie, who was allegedly killed by Jerome Isaac, spoke out yesterday about the hardships they've gone through since the horrific crime took place: "This family has been victimized twice. First by a madman and now by a gentleman who has shown depraved indifference to their plight," said Councilmember Letitia James, referring to a Manhattan hedge fund manager and his friend who had pledged to help pay for a memorial service today, but never gave the money. more ›

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 ›

A NJ Priest has been accused of extreme rudeness by two of his congregants who claim that he interrupted and rushed them through their grandmother's funeral service. Sisters Laurie Treene and Robyn Nini say that Reverend Bartley P. Baker, of St. Leo's Roman Catholic Church in Elmwood Park, ruined their 96-year-old grandmother's funeral, cuing the proverbial awards show music at points: "I got about halfway through [my eulogy] and he ran up to the podium and said, 'Wrap it up! Wrap it up!' I was just flabbergasted," said Treene. more ›

The Post, which just a few days ago featured a photograph of a dog leash and the headline "End Of His Rope" to describe the suicide of Mark Madoff, is now on his side, outraged that he was cremated without a memorial. However, his wife Stephanie explained in a statement that there would be a private event later this week, adding, "My husband Mark took his own life and regardless of what you feel about my father-in-law and his monstrous crimes, Mark's children are innocent victims and this is tragic for them. I am devastated and now raising two small children alone. I ask that you please show decency and understanding toward all of Mark's children and allow us to mourn in private." more ›

The body of Mark Madoff was removed from the NYC medical examiner's office to a funeral home, and a source tells the Post that no funeral service is planned. A community affairs police officer said, "The family doesn't want to have anything to do with the body... There's no service planned. There's not going to be a viewing... You're not going to see any Madoff relatives." more ›

Teresa Foster, the mother of a two-year-old fatally beaten by her boyfriend for not reciting his ABCs properly, is currently being held on assault and endangerment charges at Rikers Island for admitting to repeatedly beating her son, Aiyden Davis, with a belt. However, she was allowed to attend her son's funeral yesterday, where the Daily News reports there was a palpable tension between her and Aiyden's father's family. "I still don't understand a 31-year-old man beating on my grandchild," said Aiyden's paternal grandmother, Stephanie Pratt. more ›

Jorge Martinez, the bread deliveryman fatally shot by a rooftop gunman in Gravesend Saturday night, always wanted to be buried in his home country of Ecuador. And now, his family is trying to scrape together the funds to send his body there. His 16-year-old daughter Jenniffer Martinez told the Daily News, "My dad wanted to be buried in Ecuador next to his father. His mom, sister, aunts, cousins—his entire family is there...That's what he wanted. We want to bury him in peace." more ›

Some funeral attendees were forced to listen from loudspeakers outside the Shomrei Hadas Chapel yesterday as mourners flooded in for the funeral of Yoseph Robinson, the Jamaican Orthodox Jew who was fatally shot during a robbery last week. He was shot while trying to protect his girlfriend from the robber, and police and officials are offering $18,000 as a reward for the killer's capture. His girlfriend Lahavah Wallace said Robinson's last words were, "Tell my daughter that I love her." He will be buried in Jamaica on Thursday. more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Family and friends will gather for the funeral slain liquor store clerk Yoseph (or Yosef) Robinson, who was shot during a robbery in Midwood, later today. The drug dealer turned devout Orthodox Jew inspired leaders of both the black and Jewish communities across the city, as well as numerous Brooklyn officials. City Councilman Jumaane Williams (D-Brooklyn) yelled to Robinson's still-faceless killer, "This type of person can bridge communities, and you killed him! He's gone!" Councilman Mike Nelson (D-Brooklyn) agreed, saying, "You killed so many people by killing Yoseph. He was a bridge between two great communities." more ›

A funeral was held in Williamsbridge yesterday for Tashawn Bromfield, the 16-year-old fatally shot while sitting in his father's courtyard in the Bronx. Police believe Bromfield's shooting was a case of mistaken identity, and previously thought he may have been an innocent victim of a gang initiation. Bromfield was visiting his dad for the weekend, and had stayed out late with a friend. One mourner said, "It was so unfortunate that a simple trip to visit his dad in the Bronx ended up being a nightmare for his whole family." more ›

Funeral services were scheduled this morning for Luis Soto, the 22-year-old man killed during a chaotic shooting in Harlem early Sunday morning. Soto and another man, Angel Alvarez, got into a fight and between the two of them, a gun emerged. The shots attracted other police officers, who, after reportedly being fired upon, fired 46 shots. Soto, who was shot multiple times, apparently died from a police bullet while Alvarez suffered over 21 gunshot wounds. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said, "We have witnesses that say that Luis Soto had a gun. We have witnesses that say there was a struggle with Alvarez over the gun and witnesses that say Angel Alvarez had the gun in his possession." more ›

Yesterday, a funeral service was held in Brooklyn for the Staten Island mother and her four children who died last month. Leisa Jones killed her children, 14-year-old C.J., 10-year-old Brittnie, 7-year-old Melonie and 2-year-old Jermaine, and then herself. Their bodies were found after a fire in their Port Richmond apartment and it emerged that Jones had been struggling financially. Another funeral is being held in D.C. today, followed by a burial. The Brooklyn Funeral Home's owner Anthony Cassieri is paying for all the service; he told the Staten Island Advance, "This happened not far from where I live. No matter what happened, it’s still a tragedy. [The mother] was obviously in a very bad place." more ›

A Bronx man has filed a $1.5 million lawsuit against the city claiming he was wrongfully arrested on made-up charges of soliciting sex from an undercover cop—and the NYPD kept him behind bars for so long he missed his father's funeral. "It's very upsetting," 51-year-old security guard Clifton Quarles Jr. said in a statement issued to the Daily News. "My father was my best friend and I missed his funeral. I will have to live with that for a lifetime." 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 ›

The socialite who allegedly killed her autistic son in a botched murder suicide begged a judge to allow her to attend his funeral. An attorney representing Gigi Jordan argued that his client—who investigators say drugged 8-year-old Jude Michael Mirra in a posh Midtown hotel last month—would feel "immeasurable pain" if she wasn't allowed to attend the service. more ›

Socialite and baby-oil heiress Casey Johnson, who died last week in LA at the age of 30, was buried during a private funeral in New Brunswick, New Jersey yesterday morning. E! Online reports that those in attendance included Nicky Hilton, and her family — including father/Jets owner Woody Johnson, and her adopted daughter Ava. Her fiance, Tila Tequila, was reportedly not invited. TMZ reports that it's "increasingly looking like Johnson's frail medical condition — which included diabetes — may have caused her death." more ›

Firefighter Jim Ryan, who responded to the September 11 attacks, died of pancreatic cancer on Christmas Day and a wake was held for him yesterday. However, the Daily News reports his family and fellow firefighters were upset that the FDNY didn't give him a line-of-duty funeral service, so "Ryan's Engine Co. 320 organized an honor guard, bagpipes and transport vehicles on their own." His family maintains that Ryan became ill due to the toxins he was exposed to on 9/11, with his brother says, "The doctors had no doubt. The people who were there that day were victims. They didn't hesitate... That's what a real hero does." And union chief Steve Cassidy said, "The New York City Fire Department has failed to acknowledge guys like Jimmy Ryan who have died. He's not the first and he's not going to be the last." more ›

As the Internal Affairs investigation on Officer Andrew Kelly and the potential police coverup of his DWI crash continues, yesterday the accident's victim, Vionique Valnord, was laid to rest inside her preacher father's Brooklyn church. Hundreds of friends and family gathered at the Church of God in Marine Park to pay their final respects. Her brother-in-law said, "We don't know how to feel. Sad, mad, but we are happy that we are able to send Veronica to the Lord. We will see her again one day." more ›

Please do heed the word "gruesome" before deciding whether to read further. Seriously. Police sources have told the Post that the body of slain Yale graduate student Annie Le was horrifically broken and mangled in order to fit through a wall opening the size of a computer screen. The corpse was found in a utility space in a bathroom wall near the basement lab where Le had been working the day she vanished. more ›

Relatives, friends, teachers, and students gathered last night to mourn the tragic death of Glen Wright, who was stabbed to death outside his grandmother's East Village building because gang members mistook him for someone else. (We noted this devastating story yesterday, and like many, we're still profoundly saddened.) Wright, who died at age 21, was taking a break from helping his grandmother wash windows at the Baruch Houses on the Lower East Side when a group of men approached him. Suspect Joel Herrera, 20, is accused of stabbing Wright repeatedly in the neck; he told detectives he confused Wright with someone who assaulted one of his friends. Cops are searching for the other assailants. more ›

Yesterday, music legend Michael Jackson was buried at Forest-Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California, ten weeks after his death. While the attendees were limited to two hundred family members and friends (including ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley, Corey Feldman, Macaulay Culkin, Barry Bonds, and Chris Tucker), the Reverend Al Sharpton kept his Twitter followers appraised of the services, Tweeting, "I am sitting at the burial services of michael jackson. I am talking to actress lisaraye mc coy who was at NAN when MJ came and tom mesereau," "What MJ went through was so unfair, yet he succeeded. In the end, he was the biggest artist ever. He faced the headwinds but he made it," "I just spoke at the conclusion of tributes. Gladys knight sang her heart out. Now we prepare to lay him top rest," and "MICHAEL JACKSON HAS BEENb LAID TO REST." Sharpton has defended Jackson's reputation and was at the Brooklyn MJ celebration last weekend. more ›

What's worse: flirting with someone at your longtime love's funeral, or flirting with your own daughter? What about both! 68-year-old Ryan O'Neal admitted the creepy encounter in an interview with Vanity Fair, recounting the story as such: "I had just put the casket in the hearse and was watching it drive away, when a beautiful blond woman comes up and embraces me. I said to her, 'You have a drink on you? You have a car?' She said, 'Daddy, it's me—Tatum!' I was just trying to be funny with a strange Swedish woman, and it's my daughter. It's so sick." At least one of them recognized the other—maybe this means Tatum is sober now. The actress, who was busted for buying crack and cocaine on the LES last year, says, "That's our relationship in a nutshell. You make of it what you will. It had been a few years since we'd seen each other. And he was always a ladies' man, a bon vivant." No word on if the two have talked since. Estrangement means never having to say you're sorry? more ›

A huge turnout, including hundreds of cops, is expected for the funeral of fallen Jersey City police officer Marc DiNardo. DiNardo, a father of three, was shot in the face over a week ago, when two shooting suspects fired upon the Emergency Service Unit cops staking out their apartment; four other police officers were wounded while the two suspects were killed. DiNardo's family, which decided to take the 37-year-old off life support on Tuesday and donate his organs, held a blood drive in his honor yesterday (which would have been his 38th birthday). The drive attracted hundreds—his widow Mary and mother were among the donors—and Jersey City Police Chief Thomas Comey said, "There's people here from every walk of life. It shows that people stand behind us." Today, a number of streets in Jersey City will be closed from 8 a.m. until the funeral procession passes through. more ›

Yesterday, Danielle Edwards, widow of the off-duty cop Omar Edwards who was killed in a police "friendly fire" incident last week, was among the hundreds of mourners at the Woodward Funeral Home for her husband's wake. The Daily News said she sat in the third row with her two young sons, "the grief of lost love [was] etched on her face," and the NY Times noticed how "two drawings from his toddler son — jagged scribbles on plain white paper — were clipped together and placed on the satiny white interior of the casket, near a gold plaque that read 'Omar J. Edwards, 1984-2009.'" Leonid Timoshenko, whose police officer son Russel was killed during a 2007 traffic stop, paid his respects, telling the Post, "We're united in pain." Today is the second day of Omar Edwards' wake; tomorrow is the funeral at Our Lady of Victory Church on Throop Avenue in Brooklyn. He will be buried in East Farmingdale. more ›

Every year the Improv Everywhere crew executes some prank to make fools of us all on this day, but the one they put together this year at Greenwood Cemetery serves as an example of an April Fools' Day joke done well (because so often these things go horribly wrong). They announce: "For our latest mission, 30 Improv Everywhere agents found a random funeral in the obituary section of the newspaper and turned it into the best funeral ever. We picked a man who had very few surviving relatives and then showed up to his funeral to make it truly awesome." more ›

It was one week ago today that actress Natasha Richardson took her fatal spill on a ski slope in Canada, though originally feeling okay from the fall, she ultimately died of a blunt impact to the head last Wednesday after being transported to Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City. more ›

At the beginning of this week, actress Natasha Richardson was readying to take what turned out to be a fateful trip down the bunny hill at a ski resort in Canada. Now at week's end the Daily News reports that she's "embarked on her final journey." This morning, Richardson's body, in a wooden casket, was transported from Greenwich Village Funeral Home on Bleecker Street, to the American Irish Historical Society on 5th Avenue for a private wake held at 2 p.m. It's been rumored that she will be buried in Millbrook, NY, where the family had a home and Richardson belonged to the St. Joseph's Roman Catholic Church. Prior to today's sad goodbye, the Tony award winner's husband, Liam Neeson, went to Broadway last night, where the lights were dimmed in tribute to his wife. The couple fell in love there while co-starring in "Anna Christie" in 1993. Though he came and left alone, reportedly Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, and actor Fisher Stevens were seen with him before he "walked by himself through an alley and drove away." more ›