Corpse left in home for months

[Tock]

This is the sort of thing that happens when you take the Bible literally . . .
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Corpse left in home for months

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=749296

Corpse left in home for months

Body left on toilet as others prayed for her

By JESSE GARZA and ERIN RICHARDS
Posted: May 10, 2008

The discovery of the decaying corpse of a 90-year-old woman in a Necedah house led to criminal charges Friday and an account of a "religious community" praying that she be brought back to life.

The corpse had been on a toilet for more than two months, according to a criminal complaint filed in Juneau County.

A man and woman instructed her two children to pray for a miracle that would bring life back to the corpse, according to the complaint.

Tammy D. Lewis, 35, who calls herself "Sister Mary Bernadette," and 57-year-old Alan A. Bushey, known as "Bishop John Peter Bushey," each were charged with two counts of causing mental harm to a child, party to a crime, in connection with the death of Magdeline Alvina Middlesworth.
Lewis' 12-year-old and 15-year-old children lived in the house and were there when a Juneau County sheriff's deputy arrived and found the body Wednesday in the home's bathroom. The deputy had been sent to check on Middlesworth's welfare.

As word of the charges spread, neighbors told a story of family members wearing religious garb, and one Necedah resident said Bushey had once been affiliated with the nearby Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine.

According to neighbors, Tammy Lewis and her children hadn't lived long in the blue one-story house on Shrine Road in Necedah, a small town about 90 miles northwest of Madison.

Harlan Johnson, who lives next door, said the woman and her two children moved in sometime in the last year or two.

"We'd sometimes see the kids and the mom walking the grandmother around the yard," said Johnson, who assumed Middlesworth was the children's grandmother. "But in the last two to three months, we haven't seen hide nor hair of the kids or the grandma."

Johnson also recalled that a man dressed as a priest used to be in and out of the house a lot when the Lewis family moved in, but he hadn't seen him much lately either.

Townspeople say the Lewis children did not attend public school, but nobody knows if they attended the Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine school, part of a religious sect loosely linked to the followers of Mary Ann Van Hoof, who claimed to see apparitions of the Virgin Mary in 1949.
The kids were always "real quiet," Johnson said.

Johnson said Lewis and her daughter were usually dressed in full-length traditional blue-and-white habits. Johnson remembers seeing the boy dressed in nice dress slacks and a button-up shirt, even if he was playing in the yard.

At Rosie's Coffee Haus Café on Main St., a worker who gave her name only as "Christy" said people were familiar with Bishop John Peter Bushey and that he appeared to have developed his own religious followers.

The speculation at the coffeehouse is that he was cut off from the Shrine followers for some reason and had developed his own religious following, she said.

Residents say the stream of pilgrims who come to visit the town because of the shrine has tapered off in recent years and many new people have moved into homes on Shrine Road.

But residents also say the town is known for the clear divide between the Roman Catholic church in town and the Queen of the Holy Rosary Shrine.
Sister called sheriff

According to Friday's complaint:
Middlesworth's sister called the sheriff's department because she hadn't heard from her sister for some time and was worried about her.

When Deputy Leigh Neville-Neil arrived at the Necedah residence, Lewis identified herself as "Sister Mary Bernadette" but refused to allow the deputy inside.

Lewis, who was acting very nervous, told the deputy Middlesworth was on vacation and was alive and well.

When the deputy asked again to enter the home, Lewis grabbed a cordless telephone and said she had to call her "superior."

When the deputy was finally allowed inside, she detected a strong odor of incense and burned wood. The deputy also heard religious hymns playing on a stereo and noticed that the house was filled with religious items.
Neville-Neil began opening doors inside the house, and Lewis again told her Middlesworth was not home. When the deputy opened the door to the bathroom, she was hit by an overpowering odor.

She then saw a "pile of something on what appeared to be a toilet" that Lewis identified as Middlesworth's body, according to the complaint.

The complaint further said:
The deputy then ordered Lewis to take her children outside, where they and the mother began crying hysterically.
Upon further questioning by Neville-Neil, Lewis said the last time she saw Middlesworth alive, she was helping the older woman put on undergarments.
She said Middlesworth collapsed in her arms, so she propped her on the toilet. Although Middlesworth was still breathing, instead of calling 911, Lewis called Bushey, who instructed her to leave Middlesworth in the bathroom.
He also told her "that he had received signs from God that God would raise Alvina from the dead in a miracle."

Lewis told the deputy that God told her if she prayed hard enough, Middlesworth would come back to life and that she and her children prayed up to four days with the bathroom door open.

When Bushey arrived at the residence Wednesday and spoke with Neville-Neil, he confirmed Lewis' account and said "Lewis was obedient and served the Lord as she should."

Lewis later told an investigator she placed Middlesworth on the toilet March 4.

When interviewed by investigators, Lewis' son referred to Middlesworth as his grandmother. The boy said Bushey explained Middlesworth's appearance on the toilet as "the result of demons attempting to make it appear that Alvina would not come back to life."

The boy also said he considered running away because of Middlesworth's condition.

He said Bushey told him that if Middlesworth's death was discovered, the children would have to go to public schools and they would all have to get jobs because Middlesworth paid the bills.

Lewis' daughter told authorities that Middlesworth was the provider for their "religious community."

Bushey and Lewis also were charged with obstructing an officer and had their bonds set at $50,000.

The two were in custody in the Juneau County Jail on Friday night.
Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said Lewis' children had been placed in foster care, The Associated Press reported Friday night.

[Narkissos]

Lmao!

[Coop77]

Two months.. that's nothing how about 35 YEARS

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,356375,00.html

Woman's Dead Body Lies in Flat for 35 Years

ZAGREB, Croatia — Governments have changed. War erupted and ended. Neighbors had children, and then grandchildren. But Hedviga Golik never left her tiny apartment in Croatia's capital — until her mummified body was carried out this week, 35 years after she died.

Police said Friday that no one ever reported Golik missing and no one has come to claim her body.

Residents of her loft building in downtown Zagreb had broken into Golik's flat after deciding that the apartment should belong to them, and not to her. Startled by the remains in bed, they called police.

Forensics experts said Golik likely died in 1973, about the time a neighbor last saw her. Expert Davor Strinovic said she seemed to have died of natural causes, but "it's almost impossible to say for certain" after so much time.

Some of Golik's neighbors claimed she had talked about going abroad.

Experts said her windows had been open, likely diminishing the smell. It remained unclear who — if anyone — was paying her bills and who exactly owned the apartment. In the 1970s, when Golik died, apartments were state-owned.

Neighbors now argue the apartment should be divided among the remaining tenants.

The discovery of Golik's body on Tuesday prompted media debates on how it is possible for a woman to die so long ago without anyone noticing. One local journalist said it showed people were becoming more alienated.

"My dear neighbors! Please keep on being curious and a bit tiresome, as you have been so far," Merita Arslani wrote in the Jutarnji list daily.

[xmarine30uk]

thats sum messed up shit