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4/25/2017, 3:51pm

Family’s fight over corpse disrespectful, embarrassing to dead

By Kayliegh Purcell

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Justice should be served.

Disputes have been made for years in finding a concrete burial spot for the dead body of William J. McCartney IV between courts and his second wife. The original decision made by his first wife, Patty Jo, and his family, was to have him buried in the Crestview Memorial Park in Grove City, Pennsylvania. However, Patty Jo McCartney found his grave empty and headstone missing. It turns out his second wife had moved the remains to a different location at Castleview Memorial Park.

One of McCarthy’s relatives insisted on having his remains moved back to their initial location in Crestview; however, the courts denied their request. McCarthy’s family is not considering the costs that go into the process of a burial, nor are they realizing how disrespectful it is to keep re-locating the remains of a loved one, according to Penn Live.

According to the International Souther Cemetery Gravestones Association, the average cost of a gravestone is nearly $2,000. To have someone buried once is a substantial amount of money, let alone having to go through the expense a second time. The court made the right decision to have his remains kept in it’s unknown location because that way no one can have access to his gravestone, and this restricts the likelihood from anyone vandalizing it a second time.

It is not fair to Mr. McCartney that his remains have constantly been moved around. His spirit was disturbed by those who felt the need to deliberately destroy his headstone. His spirit is supposed to be resting in peace and it is quite evident that he can’t get the respect he deserves. His family should understand that wherever he is located now, he is in a safer and less-threatened environment.

Messing with a dead man’s body is inhumane and incredibly uncivil. McCartney’s family is no better because they insisted on having his remains moved several times, which again is a cruel, inconsiderate thing to do, even if they thought it was for his own good. Maybe one day we will learn to respect each other, but for now that is a toss-up situation.

The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the writer and are not representative of The Slate or its staff as a whole. 

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