Elderly Widow Stored Wife's Body for Years
By ANABELLE GARAY
The Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) - A 75-year-old man stored his wife's body for nearly six years in his backyard, twisted and upside down in an old freezer, because he hoped she could someday be brought back to life, authorities said.

When police went to Edwin Rowlette's home after receiving a tip from his daughter, they found dozens of cats along with feces and urine inside the house. The backyard, where one of the daughter's friends discovered the body, was cluttered with garbage, debris, insulation and furniture.

Authorities found Marcia Lynn Rowlette's body packed in dry ice and insulation and stored along with the bodies of ten dead cats. Rowlette told police he used the cats for research.

Rowlette was arrested last week on a felony charge of crimes against the dead. Investigators are trying to determine if he legally acquired his wife's body from a funeral home and whether he submitted the proper documents.

``One of the areas that we're looking at is if he had committed a fraud in obtaining the body,'' said Prescott police Sgt. Michael Kabbel.

Prescott, a pine-studded town of about 33,000, is located 90 miles north of Phoenix.

Rowlette told police he was keeping his wife's body frozen in hopes that someday science could bring her back to life.

Marcia Rowlette was wheelchair-bound and lived in a nursing home before she died Dec. 15, 1997, of respiratory failure. The 38-year-old woman had a history of rheumatoid arthritis and musculoskeletal problems.

``She had a lot of congenital anomalies that made it difficult to do anything,'' said Karen Gere, medical investigator with the Yavapai County medical examiner's office.

After her death, Marcia Rowlette's body was transferred to a funeral home. The body was released to the McCandless Research and Development Foundation after Rowlette submitted documents showing his wife's body was being donated for scientific research.

Rowlette said he created the foundation in 1985 and bills it as an organization that supports scientific research and humanitarian causes. Police are investigating whether the foundation is legitimate.

The president of the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based cryonics facility said to be storing the body of baseball great Ted Williams said he was unfamiliar with Rowlette's organization.

Alcor Life Extension Foundation president Jerry B. Lemler also noted that cryonics is generally performed with liquid nitrogen, not dry ice, because liquid nitrogen is colder.

``I hate to be the one to burst the bubble on this man's dream,'' Lemler said. ``He had a dream that we share here at Alcor. But I don't think his methodology was very thought out.''



09/12/03 03:55 EDT

A sad story.

A 75 year old man who, judging by the description of living conditions and actions, is clearly not coping too well with his wife's death and the police's first thought is to arrest him for "crimes against the dead", fraud and improper documentation. Sensitive to say the very least.

And I would hope that if I was in the same position, my daughter might not have left me to live among squalor (although the backyard sounds like remarkably like my garden now!).

I just hope some sense prevails.

sad and sick

Ooh ewww

It seems to be increasingly common to find people harboring the remains of a dead relative these days. At least this guy, whatever his mental state, was not doing it to collect the all important social security/welfare/retirement check for the deceased, as is usually the case.

Poor man,
I hope he is able to find some peace. His daughter does not even sound that compassionate.

I think this guy just truely loved his wife TOO much. I think he needed some help so he was able to move on with his life...


RH

I don't think there's anything his daughter did that "does not even sound that compassionate"...if I discovered my mother's body stuffed into a fridge by my father, I think I'd want to see her properly buried, and given some dignity, than packed in with some dead cats for expirimentation. As for how the guy's living...he's keeping cats around for expirimentation, and by what's in the fridge, is killing them to do it...

I appreciate the guy wanted his wife back...but I think that's crazy...he's obviously rather touched in the head, and at the very least, he'll probably end up somewhere he's better off than living among cat poop.

Good point Seraphina

I must admit, I hadn't thought of it like that. At least we're in agreement that he is bonkers crazy!

What a sad, sad story. Although, I do think that guy was crazy, I still feel sorry 4 him. How done and out would you have to be to live in such awful conditions? I don't want to imagine what he must have felt like for the most recent parts of his life....

A sad (if not ikky) story.
I hope this man gets all the love, support and help that he needs to carry on with his life and come to terms with the death of his wife.

Hammy x x x

They say that sometimes after a life-long relationship (as was probably the case here) the surviving partner has extreme difficulty coping and moving on with life.

Let's just hope, like Hammy said, that this man come to terms with the death of his wife.

However, seeing as I'm not directly involved maybe my opinion is an easy one to have. I'm sure it might alter if that were my mother.

Who knows.

He was 68 or something like that in 1997 ???
And she was 38 when she died 1997 ?

Only a tought..

I dont think it was their doughter...think it was his....


Love is a strong thing