Family who couldn't afford burial kept body in SUV
By The Associated Press
(3/18/05 - ROYSE CITY, TX) -- A woman who couldn't afford to bury her ex-husband last month drew criticism from neighbors and questions from police after she stored his embalmed body in the back of an SUV in the family's driveway for two days.

"The phone rang off the wall with calls such as, 'How ... can you all be so cold-hearted and keep Larry in that vehicle in front of your home?' " said Brenda Pitts Bennett, who had let 50-year-old Larry Bennett live with her after their 1995 divorce.

Larry Bennett, a former building inspector whose poor health had cost him his job and drained his finances, died Feb. 26. His cause of death is pending, but his ex-wife said he died of complications of Lyme disease, a bacterial disease spread by ticks.

Larry Bennett was buried in his ex-wife's hometown of Farmersville, but not before the Bennetts became the talk of the neighborhood.

Brenda Bennett said she went to Rockwall County shortly after the death to collect money for a burial. A judge told her the county allows up to $1,000 for cremation of paupers. The ex-wife said she took the $1,000 to a funeral home because she thought it would pay for a burial instead of cremation, but she later was told that it wouldn't be enough.

So, she said, the family had little choice but to load Larry Bennett's body in their SUV and take him home while they figured out what to do.

She said the family soon started getting angry calls -- so many, that they had to take the phone off the hook -- and people started driving by just to look at the body, which was in a bag.

Royse City police received numerous calls about the body, Sgt. Jim Baker said. But the body wasn't removed because no law was violated, and since the body was
embalmed, it posed no health issue, Baker said.

"It was believed to be safe, and the family had a right to claim it," he said.

After two days, a mortuary agreed to store the body. Larry Bennett was buried March 10 with the help of donations.

Brenda Bennett said the treatment from the community was disheartening.

"Everyone acted like I was insane. ... I know they could not have come up with the money at all to afford a funeral for their loved one, yet they wanted to condemn us," she wrote.

I'm not sure how to get the info. but she used to be the contact person for D/FW listed on this website under support groups.

I've exchanged e-mails with her in the past but I've erased everything since then.

Sherry

This part of the story is becoming all too common.
(quote)
Larry Bennett, a former building inspector whose poor health had cost him his job and drained his finances, died Feb. 26. His cause of death is pending, but his ex-wife said he died of complications of Lyme disease, a bacterial disease spread by ticks. (unquote)