- At least it doesn’t seem they killed the poor fellow.
Have you seen the classic 1989 comedy Weekend at Bernie’s? If not, the basic gist is that two pals prop up their deceased boss’ corpse to fool people into thinking he’s still alive.
But why are we bringing up a 35-year-old movie? Well, that’s because these two Ohio women have clearly seen it one too many times.
Loreen Bea Feralo and Karen Casbohm have been charged in a bizarre and macabre case of fraud and desecration of a dead body. The duo of women recently found Douglas Layman dead in his home.
Instead of calling an ambulance, a police report alleges they placed Layman in a car so that it looked like he was simply sitting down. They then drove down to a bank to make a withdrawal from his bank account.
After they had the cash in hand, Feralo and Casbohm finally dropped Layman’s lifeless body off at the emergency room. However, they slipped out as soon as they could, leaving the medical professional with no clue about who the man was.
Needless to say, the police were called. The cops figured out what had gone down soon enough and promptly arrested the women.
Dead Man Driving
The strange resurrection case happened in the city of Ashtabula, Ohio, on March 4. According to a statement from the Ashtabula Police Department (APD), Feralo, 55, and Casbohm, 63, returned to the house where they lived with Layman.
The three aren’t related or married to each other or anything. They just shared a house for some reason.
However, when the women got to the house, they found out that Layman no longer lived there — or at all. The 80-year-old man had died while Feralo and Casbohm were away and now lay lifeless on the floor.
We can’t be sure what kind of a conversation happened between Feralo and Casbohm after they discovered Layman’s body. We do know that it didn’t end up with an ambulance picking up his mortal remains.
Instead, the police allege that Feralo and Casbohm carried Layman’s body into a car. Additionally, the police state a third, as-of-yet unidentified individual helped the women drag Layman out of the house.
According to the police report, they placed Layman in the front seat as if he was sitting there, still alive and breathing. Then, they drove to a nearby bank.
It appears that Feralo and Casbohm may have had some kind of a caretaking relationship with Layman. The police say that the women had previously been allowed to withdraw money from Layman’s accounts as long as the man himself was accompanying them.
As Feralo and Casbohm pulled up to the bank’s drive-through window, Layman certainly was with them.
“Mr. Layman was placed in the vehicle in such a manner that he would be visible to the bank staff,” the police report reads.
The teller didn’t realize he was no longer drawing breath (because let’s be real, who would suspect that?). So, they allowed the women to withdraw $900.
I’d Like to Drop Off a Corpse…
With the money in hand, Feralo and Casbohm seem to have determined they had no further use for Layman’s body. So, they drove to the emergency room of the Ashtabula County Medical Center (ACMC).
They allegedly informed ACMC staff of the dead man in the car. However, they left the premises as soon as the hospital removed the corpse without giving ACMC any information about themselves or Layman.
Understandably, the hospital called APD since — you know — someone had just dropped off a corpse and sped off. A couple of hours later, however, one of the women reportedly called ACMC and let them know who Layman was.
Of course, that also gave the cops a clue about what was going on. The APD states that officers arrived at Layman’s residence, where they found Feralo and Casbohm.
Well, there’s not much to the story after this point. The women were arrested and have now been charged with theft and gross abuse of a corpse.
This isn’t the first time Feralo and Casbohm have had their run-ins with the law. Both have previously been convicted of theft, criminal trespass, and drug-related crimes, while Feralo also sports a reckless assault conviction.
For the time being, it seems Layman died of his own accord, though, so at least they won’t have to add murder to the list. Silver linings, we suppose.