Funeral Home Van Stolen, With a Body Inside

Police in Illinois recover both, separately, but are still searching for suspect
By Newser Editors,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 27, 2023 11:15 AM CST
Funeral Home Van Stolen, With a Body Inside
Stock image.   (Getty / kzenon)

A thief who stole a van from a funeral home in Illinois last week probably should have expected the next development: A man's body was in the cargo area. Police in Rockford say the van belonged to Collins & Stone Funeral Home, which was in the process of handling the arrangements for a deceased 47-year-old, Curtis Brown, reports WGN. The following day, police found the abandoned van in the city, but without Brown's body. The day after that, they recovered Brown's body in a Chicago alley, his mother tells the station.

"I was thinking what are they trying to do, steal his organs or something like that," Brown's brother tells ABC7. "We thought we would never find him, that maybe they threw him in the lake." Police have identified a suspect, 23-year-old Deon Howard, who remains at large. He faces charges of unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle and abuse of a corpse. (More weird crimes stories.)

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