Two women from Ohio have been accused of transporting the deceased body of an 80-year-old man to a bank to withdraw funds from his account before eventually delivering his body to a hospital.
Karen Casbohm, aged 63, and Loreen Bea Feralo, aged 55, faced charges on Tuesday in Ashtabula, including gross abuse of a corpse and theft from a person in a protected class, as per records from Ashtabula Municipal Court.
According to the police, they received a call on Monday evening reporting that two unidentified women had left a body at the emergency room of Ashtabula County Medical Center without providing any identification for the deceased or themselves. Subsequently, one of the women contacted the hospital later that evening to provide information about the deceased individual, who was later identified as 80-year-old Douglas Layman of Ashtabula.
Upon reaching Layman's residence, officers engaged with Casbohm and Feralo, who claimed to have discovered Layman deceased at their shared residence earlier. Allegedly, with the assistance of an unnamed third party, they placed Layman's body in the front seat of his car and drove to a bank to withdraw an undisclosed sum from his account.
Ashtabula Police Chief Robert Stell stated in a news release on Thursday that Layman's body was positioned in a manner visible to bank staff to facilitate the withdrawal, noting that the bank had permitted such transactions previously as long as Layman accompanied them.
According to Lt. Mike Palinkas, one of the women had been in a live-in relationship with Layman for several years, while the other had been residing there for a few months. Palinkas mentioned that it was customary for them to access funds from Layman's account, although he did not provide a comprehensive explanation for their actions on that particular day.
"Allegedly, they wanted to pay some bills but outside of that, there wasn’t a specific motivation provided," Palinkas stated.
Casbohm was arraigned and held on a $5,000 bond, while Feralo is slated for arraignment the following week. It remains uncertain whether they have legal representation; contact numbers associated with their names were found to be disconnected. An inquiry was directed to the county public defender’s office for comment on whether they were representing one or both defendants.
The investigation is ongoing, with the possibility of additional charges being filed. The coroner’s office indicated that an autopsy to determine the cause of Layman’s death might take up to eight months.
