WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) - Delaware authorities have charged a former state forensic investigator with abusing a corpse.
Officials announced an indictment Monday against 39-year-old James T. Schaeffer-Patton of Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, on two misdemeanor counts.
Patton is accused of improperly handling bodies on two separate occasions.
Prosecutors alleged that Patton used a ligature that had been tied around a dead person’s neck to drag the body out of a bedroom and down a hallway at a home in northern New Castle County in January 2018.
Patton also is accused of carrying a body bag down a flight of stairs at an apartment complex in Newark in July 2019, allowing the victim’s head to hit the stairs several times.
“Multiple New Castle County police officers described the sound of the decedent’s head striking the steps as loud, repetitive thuds,” a state trooper said in an affidavit.
“Patton treated both decedents in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities,” the trooper added.
Abusing a corpse is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year in prison.
It was not immediately clear whether Patton has an attorney.
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