Body Left In Hearse 9 Days By Funeral Director

By: Staff
Staff Writer
Published: Aug 27, 2021

Body left in hearse, and the funeral director claims the woman was already decomposed.

Body left in hearse 9 days by funeral director. A hearse carried a woman's body who was left inside the vehicle for 9 days. Linda Walton's body was found in the hearse, 9 days after she had died.

Police were called nine days later to investigate a foul odor in downtown Graham, about 55 miles west of Raleigh. They traced the smell to a hearse owned by David B. Lawson Mortuary, the undertaker that picked up Walton's body on August 11. The 37-year-old was still in the back of the undertaker's vehicle.

The Alamance County district attorney's office are now investigating how this could have happened. Their findings have sparked an inquiry by the N.C. Board of Funeral Service, which is responsible for the administration and regulation of the profession of funeral service in North Carolina. There was no suspected foul play in Walton's death.

Lawson stated that the woman was already badly decomposed, when he picked her up, he could not embalm her. So he kept her body in the hearse overnight. Then he could not find anyone to accept the body the following day, so he left it there. Lawson has been a licensed funeral director and embalmer in North Carolina for 34 years. "Lawson's service was called after investigators couldn't find Walton's next of kin," stated Capt. Joel Booker of the Carrboro police department.