WV MAKES NATIONAL NEWS - Beckley Woman Steals Hearse With Body

(09/22/2011)

West Virginia is making the national news. Beckley police say a woman looking for a ride, found it when she was walking by the Ritchie and Johnson funeral home, hopping in a hearse and taking off. The hearse driver was opening a garage door when she took the vehicle. Authorities say the woman had an extra passenger, the body of an elderly woman. Angela Dehart has been arrested and charged with grand larceny and displacement of a body. Beckley police said the woman had been in a fight with her girlfriend, when she took the body on a ride that would wake the dead. Authorities say she was driving recklessly and knocked it off the gurney causing bumps and bruises. They finally tracked down the hearse after neighbors spotted the vehicle. "The concern was if we were not able to recover the body in a timely manner, the emotional stress being put on loved ones and family," said Captain Jeff Shumate of the Beckley Police Department. Dehart is apologizing for the incident. She is being held on a $25,000 bond in the Southern Regional Jail.

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