A Kentucky coroner left a corpse in a hot car to fester, and the smell caused guests and pallbearers to vomit during the funeral, a lawsuit says
Sep 16, 2023, 18:29 IST
- A Kentucky coroner left a man's body in his vehicle on an "unseasonably warm day."
- The body decomposed, and funeral guests and staff vomited from the stench.
Advertisement
A "foul and pungent odor" emanating from a man's coffin caused funeral guests, staff members, and pallbearers to throw up during a service, after a Kentucky coroner left the man's corpse in a hot car to decompose, a lawsuit from the deceased man's estate alleged.
The lawsuit said Nathan Dean Peyton died on December 30, 2022, and Morgan County Coroner Raymond Vancleave picked up Peyton's body that same morning. But December 30 was "an unseasonably warm day" and Vancleave left Peyton's body inside the SUV throughout the afternoon and evening of December 30, where it "rapidly decomposed while sealed within the body bag that was left inside of Raymond Vancleave's hot motor vehicle."It wasn't until December 31 that Vancleave brought Peyton's body to the state medical examiner's office in Frankfort, Kentucky, "for an autopsy that was not requested by the family," the lawsuit said. By the time the body was retrieved by the funeral home owner on January 1, 2023, Peyton's body was decomposed so severely that "the smell emanating from the body bag was pungent and putrid," the lawsuit said.The lawsuit added that Peyton's body could not be embalmed due to the "complete decomposition," and instead, the funeral home had to leave the body sealed inside the body bag and placed inside a coffin.The closed-casket funeral service occurred on January 6, and the "unbearable smell" caused multiple pallbearers, guests, and funeral home staffers to throw up, the lawsuit said."The family and loved ones of Nathan Dean Peyton were not able to properly say goodbye to him at a normal funeral due to the reckless and negligent treatment of his corpse," the lawsuit said.Multiple attempts to reach Vancleave were unsuccessful. He did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment, and a woman who answered the phone at Vancleave's office hung up when an Insider reporter identified herself and requested comment on the lawsuit.The local CBS affiliate WKYT reported that Vancleave has since resigned from his role as Morgan County Coroner.