14 DAY TRIAL // 93-year-old Clarence Bright, from Detroit, was set to be buried on Tuesday, January 15, but his remains disappeared. His body was stolen from Gethsemane cemetery in Detroit, after a service held at Swanson's Funeral Home.
The cemetery was a temporary location where the body was stored before the burial, scheduled for Monday morning. Before he could be put in the ground, the body vanished from the funeral parlor, in a casket.
The theft prompted a search from local police, Click on Detroit writes. Law enforcement officials eventually found the casket in the back of a van on Harper and Dickerson Street, in Detroit, but it was empty.
Clarence Bright died of a stroke, and a funeral had been organized for him, on Saturday. At the time, his son put together a speech, talking about his love for his father. He also hinted that his dad wouldn't be dead for long.
The body of the deceased man was traced to his 48-year-old son's house, on Eastlawn Street. A very religious man, according to local Lt. Harold Rochon's account, he was hoping that his father would be resurrected. When they found Bright, his son was telling him “Wake up daddy.”
“I never seen this before and we never thought he would go out like this. [...] It's obvious you know he lost his mind,” his neighbor Terrie Gaines commented.
He took the body from the parlor with the help of a 38-year-old friend. The pair have both been arrested, What's on Ningbo informs. The men's names have not been released to the press.
“He was hoping for a miracle,” Rochon notes about the son's behavior.
The incident has been described as a “very, very bizarre situation” by employee Leon Jones from the Swanson Funeral Home.