The cremated remains of a Queens woman were stolen along with expensive electronics from a rental car on May 9th, just after the woman's memorial service. Hours after Eileen Dashiell's ashes were packed inside a box and placed in a green tote bag by the crematorium, her daughter, Jeanne Shuff, left the rented van parked outside a relative's house in Mott Haven. The next morning, Shuff found the passenger's side window broken and her laptop, camera, DVD player and mother's ashes gone. She told the Post, "First I lost her. And then she was stolen from me." more ›

News that remains found in a Pennsylvania field were positively identified as those of Laura Garza, a 25-year-old aspiring dancer from Brooklyn who vanished in December 2008, brought a new measure of grief to her family. A cousin, Isela Villalobos, told the Journal News, "We've been in mourning since Friday, when the police told us. Laura's mother was expecting for her daughter to come in the door until that dream was shattered Friday afternoon... All we do is think of Laura. We have moments when we cry. We have moments when we laugh." more ›

State police have found remains belonging to Laura Garza, last seen at Chelsea nightclub Marquee in December 2008, in a Pennsylvania field. Garza left the club with registered sex offender Michael Mele; WCBS 2 reports, "This past April 11, more than a year later, kids on ATVs found skeletal remains in a field near Olyphant, Pennsylvania. That's one hour west from Mele's apartment." Mele has been in jail for violating his probation related to other sex crimes, but he was never charged for Garza's disappearance, though he was the police's main suspect. 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 ›

[UPDATE BELOW]: Investigators searching for the remains of a Baruch College student who disappeared 12 years ago uncovered bones in the basement of a Queens store. Law enforcement officials haven't yet linked the bones to 28-year-old undergraduate student Kristina Kupka, who vanished after her married chemistry professor got her pregnant. According to the Post, an anthropologist and the Medical Examiner's Office are studying the bones to see if they are human. If the remains are human, authorities will conduct further tests to determine if they can be linked to Kupka. more ›

Cold-case investigators are ripping up the basement of a Queens plumbing-supply store in hopes of finding the remains of a Baruch College student who disappeared 12 years ago after her married chemistry professor got her pregnant. Cops received a tip a decade ago that Kristine Kupka might be buried beneath the Jamaica shop, but the man who managed the property—a cousin of professor and "prime suspect" Darshanad Persaud—wouldn't allow them to search. But according to the Post, after the building was leased to a new business, cops got permission and a "cadaver-sniffing dog" indicated the presence of human remains. more ›

Investigators have been able to put names to the remains of two women who were killed during the September 11 terrorist attacks, according to 1010WINS. Though the medical examiner's officer is withholding releasing the names of the victims at the families' request, the city says it used a new DNA technology developed in 2006 to determine the identity one of the victims. The city regularly retests unidentified remains, though many were "too badly compromised by heat and time" to study. There are still more than 1,100 victims whose remains have not been identified. more ›

The Montauk Monster is still in the news (and on the Colbert Report), with the East Hampton Star now reporting that the mystery carcass is missing! More disturbing than that and the fact that the nation has been staring at a dead, bloated dog for a week, is the fact that the two locals holding the remains were planning to profit from the dead body. The duo were planning on reducing it to bones, creating some sort of artistic piece out of it, and watching the money roll in.

"Someone came and took the carcass. Now I have to hunt for my damn creature," said Eric Olsen, a Montauk real estate agent and surfer who retrieved the rotting animal from the beach. more ›