X-Message-Number: 10723
Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 20:39:23 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: Edmonton Women put Mother's Body in Freezer

From the Thursday November 5,1998 edition of the Vancouver Sun

The 41-year-old pleads guilty to failing to give a human body a proper
burial.

   Canadian Press

  Edmonton - A women who put her 80-year-old mother's corpse in their
freezer has pleaded guilty to a charge of neglecting to give a human body a
proper burial.
  Pamela Murphy, 41, was given a conditional discharge and must meet six
months of probation conditions.
  The two women lived together in a house in north Edmonton until October
1997, when Murphy's mother died of pneumonia caused by ovarian cancer.
  The elder women suffered for months but refused to go into treatment,
court heard. The two were very close and when the older women died, her
grieving daughter snapped.
  "She placed Mrs. Murphy in the freezer... covered her mother in plastic
bags and placed a bouquet of flowers in the freezer," said Sarah Langley,
Crown prosecutor.
  Langley said Murphy suffered a "pathological grief reaction."
  When Margaret Murphy's niece couldn't contact her over the following
three weeks, she called police, court heard. Initially, Pamela Murphy
refused them access to the house and said her mother was sleeping and
couldn't be disturbed. They were only allowed in a few days later after
Murphy got some legal advice.

Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=10723