Stolen Woman’s Body Found Near Mortuary

A 66-year-old woman’s body, stolen from a funeral home, was recovered Monday under some bushes not far from the mortuary, police said.

Solie Funeral Home employees missed the body at midmorning Monday and called authorities, police spokesman Elliott Woodall said. Funeral home workers had discovered a back door ajar earlier in the morning.

Thirty minutes later, someone walking nearby found the body hidden under some bushes.

The body was removed from the funeral home late Sunday or early Monday, Woodall said.

Snohomish County medical examiner’s investigators checked the body at the funeral home once it was recovered. Woodall said the results of that exam had not been released as of Monday night.

The woman was clothed when found, but Woodall didn’t know if any of her clothing or jewelry was missing.

The dead woman, who was not identified, had been scheduled to be buried today.

Her family’s reaction “is one of shock and dismay and emotional upset, as anyone would expect,” he told KING-TV.

Police had no immediate motive or suspects. Stealing a body and receiving a stolen body are felonies, Woodall said.

The woman died Friday. She had been living in a nursing home and suffered from a number of ailments, including Alzheimer’s disease, Woodall said.