X-Message-Number: 13348 Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2000 20:18:25 -0500 From: Jan Coetzee <> Subject: Freezing Roommate 'Shumate faces one to 10 years in prison if she is convicted of unauthorized removal of a dead body. She is also charged with destruction or desecration of human remains, which carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail, Lucas said.' Woman Charged With Freezing Roommate's Corpse LADSON, S.C. (APBnews.com) -- A 65-year-old woman is in jail today after police found the well-preserved body of her former roommate in a freezer in her garage, authorities said. Wynema Faye Shumate has been charged with the unauthorized removal of James H. O'Neil's corpse and may be charged with embezzlement. But authorities have not determined how the 70-year-old man died, and an autopsy will be performed when his body thaws in a day or two, according to Charleston County sheriff's spokesman Mitch Lucas. Shumate told investigators that O'Neil died a year ago of natural causes, Lucas said. She allegedly hid his body so she could continue to use his money. "She couldn't afford to live without his income," Lucas told APBnews.com. Shumate cared for O'Neil, who was in poor health and in a wheelchair, Lucas said. Daughter became concerned Authorities became aware that O'Neil was missing after his daughter in Maine contacted police in nearby North Charleston in June 1999 to report that she was unable to find him, Lucas said. She had not spoken to her father in several years, and the last address she had for him was in North Charleston. Police were led to Shumate after she was photographed using O'Neil's bank card at an automated teller machine in North Charleston, Lucas said. North Charleston police, who first interviewed Shumate in September, discovered O'Neil's body by chance Tuesday after they went to her home in this community near Charleston to investigate her alleged misuse of the missing man's money, Lucas said. A 28-year-old man from England, who had become engaged to the 65-year-old Shumate after meeting her on the Internet, was at her home when police showed up. Shumate had told the man that O'Neil's body was in the garage freezer, and he in turn told the investigators, Lucas said. They opened the freezer and found O'Neil's well-preserved body inside, he said. Dismemberment 'messy and gross' Shumate told sheriff's investigators that she came home one day in February 1999 and found O'Neil dead, Lucas said. She allegedly rented the freezer and used a medical hoist to put his body inside. She also apparently set out to cut off his limbs, but gave up after it became "so messy and gross." Lucas said Shumate's British fianc must have been in shock at what he encountered shortly after arriving in South Carolina. "They had fallen in love over the Internet, and he was coming over here to be with her," Lucas told APBnews.com. "The pictures she put on the Internet were 30 years old, and he gets off the plane in Charleston, and she's a big old gal. She's 65, and she looks like she's been 65 for a long time. Imagine what this guy's thinking about after getting off the plane and seeing her, and then he finds out there's a body in her freezer." Shumate faces one to 10 years in prison if she is convicted of unauthorized removal of a dead body. She is also charged with destruction or desecration of human remains, which carries a maximum penalty of 60 days in jail, Lucas said. She is being held in the Charleston County Detention Center on $90,000 bond. By Richard Zitrin, an APBnews.com national correspondent () Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=13348