Julie Mott’s Dead Body Stolen In San Antonio, Funeral Home Wants Higher Charges For Thieves

After Julie Mott’s dead body was stolen in Texas, the San Antonio Police Department declared that they would consider the crime as abuse of a corpse, which is a class A misdemeanor in the state. Dick Tips, who is the owner of Mission Park Funeral Home, believes the charges against the thieves should be higher once they are eventually caught.

In a related report by the Inquisitr, the funeral home owner believes it is possible that Julie Mott’s body was stolen by someone who disagrees with cremation.

“I can’t believe this is happening to such dear friends of mine and she’s a dear friend of mine,” said Tips. “This is a person that I know. This is a person that I know and I want her back. We think it is possible that the fact that someone didn’t believe in the cremation process, versus the traditional burial process.”

Mott died due to a genetic disease and Tips said the funeral date of August 15 was chosen because it would have been the young woman’s 26th birthday. After the funeral service ended on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m., the body “was removed from here and taken to a visitation suite and would have moved on Monday to the crematory.” The building was locked up at 4:30 p.m., so the theft must have occurred during that three-hour gap, but San Antonio police are uncertain how the theft took place since there were not any security cameras.

“There wasn’t any forced entry to the facility,” said Sgt. Javier Salazar. “So, what it’s believed is between the hours of 1:30 p.m. when the service ended to about 4:30 p.m. when they locked up for the evening, someone came in and stole Ms. Mott’s remains. That person remains at large.”

Although the death of their daughter was hard, the shocking theft of the corpse has only upset the family further.

“As you can imagine this is not an easy thing to talk about,” said Julie Mott’s father, Tim. “We just want our daughter’s remains returned so that we can have some closure to our grief.”

One Facebook friend, Jessica Payne, said this it was “so disturbing and unbelievable that someone would do this. RIP Julie and prayers to your family in this horrible time.”

Taylor Ricks said, “This is unbelievable. Keep the family of Julie Mott in your thoughts, they’ve had enough heartache, now this. Just sickening.”

Even Sergeant Salazar says, “I have never in 22 years in law enforcement ever heard of anything like this.”

Based upon Texas law, the abuse of a corpse is defined as anyone who “vandalizes, damages, or treats in an offensive manner the space in which a human corpse has been interred or otherwise permanently laid to rest.” In this case, the stipulation which applies includes those who “disinters, disturbs, damages, dissects, in whole or in part, carries away, or treats in an offensive manner a human corpse.”

In Texas, class A misdemeanors “are punishable by up to one year in jail, a fine of up to $4,000, or both jail time and a fine.” Dick Tips believes the punishment needs to be more severe.

“This is a family business of five generations, and I just am not believing that this is happening,” said Tips, noting how the funeral home has never had anything happen like this in 100 years of business.

According to WFLA, Tips wants the status of the crime to be upgraded to something more severe. Tips says he has already contacted Texas lawmakers about this issue, and the San Antonio Police Departments says once the corpse is recovered they may file more charges against the perpetrators.

The funeral home owner is also offering $20,000 to anyone who can give San Antonio police a lead to finding Julie Mott’s body. Anyone who has information is asked to call 210-225-TIPS.

[Image via Facebook]