Background: The Hardin County Detention Center in Elizabethtown, Ky. (Hardin County Sheriff's Office). Inset: John Emrich (Hardin County Detention Center).
A man in Kentucky is accused of letting his dead wife's body sit next to him for months without doing anything until someone asked authorities to do a welfare check.
John George Emrich, 59, has been charged with abuse of a corpse, according to jail records reviewed by Law&Crime. He was arrested on June 19.
On that day, deputies with the Hardin County Sheriff's Office went to a home on Homestead Avenue in their county. Someone had asked them to conduct a welfare check there.
The deputies arrived and spoke with Emrich, the homeowner, according to an arrest citation obtained by The News-Enterprise. The law enforcement officers then found his wife's remains inside.
Emrich told deputies that his wife had died in February. By then, four months had passed since her death without authorities being notified.
It is unclear who called authorities for the welfare check or what caused Emrich's wife's death, and she has not been publicly identified. Law&Crime reached out to the Hardin County Sheriff's Office for more information.
Deputies arrested the defendant and booked him in the Hardin County Detention Center. Abuse of a corpse is a Class D felony in Kentucky and can lead to a sentence of five years in prison.
Emrich was scheduled to appear in court on Monday. He is still being held in jail on a $5,000 bond.
Homestead Avenue in Hardin County is located near the center of the state and is about 60 miles south of Louisville. Its county seat is Elizabethtown, home to the Hardin County Detention Center.
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