Woman accused of trying to remove body at funeral
COLUMBIA, Tenn. -- A Tennessee woman is facing charges after being accused of walking into a funeral and trying to remove a body from a casket.
News agencies report Columbia police say 36-year-old Cynthia Ann Frierson was charged with disrupting a funeral, public intoxication, unlawful drug paraphernalia and driving on a revoked/suspended license.
A police report says Frierson hit two cars with her truck Monday and fled before arriving at the funeral home, where witnesses say she entered a service, walked up to the casket and began grabbing at the body inside. Several people then removed her from the building.
“It really wasn’t shocking because I knew her capability, what she might do,” Gary Stovall, who lives across the street from where he said Frierson often stays, told CBS Nashville affiliate WTVF-TV. “But you want to think that she wouldn’t do anything like that.”
Police say Frierson smelled of alcohol and had a small glass pipe with her.
Frierson denies any wrongdoing, telling WKRN-TV that she knew the deceased and just went up and touched the body.