State orders St. Petersburg funeral parlor to halt embalming, storing bodies

ST. PETERSBURG — The "shocking and appalling" complaints from two families who claimed they found maggots crawling on their dead relatives have prompted the state to virtually shut down the Morning Glory Funeral Chapel.

The state issued an emergency order that prevents the funeral home from embalming or storing dead bodies. Morning Glory can continue to schedule services at its 3301 Fifth Ave. S location, but only if another funeral home handles embalming and refrigeration of the bodies.

The order comes after one family reported that a maggot crawled out of a relative's nose during a viewing in July. The body also had a foul odor, according to the state's order. The second complaint came from relatives of Deloris Washington, who reported the woman had maggots on her face during her December viewing at the funeral home.

The state's order says funeral home owner Lisa Speights "removed the maggots by hand on two separate occasions and sprayed the decedent's face with disinfectant."

This was done "in full view of the complaining family members and caused them understandable distress," the state's order says.

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Fla. authorities find body in freezer

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Authorities responding to a suicide in West Palm Beach have made a chilling discovery - a body stored in a carport freezer.

Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies say they received a call Saturday morning after a man found a suicide note stuck in his door from his father. He found his father dead in a van in front of the resident. When authorities came to the home, they also found the grandfather's body in a freezer. In the suicide note from the father, he said his elderly father was in his 80s died and he could not bear to let go, so he froze the body.

An autopsy will be performed to determine the official cause of death.

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They have sex, he dies, she robs him and goes on 'sex rampage'

In an interview with WFTV.com, 44-year old Lynn Stewart said she was drinking with Lawrence Wetzler last Thursday night at his apartment in West Melbourne, and then they had sex and fell asleep.  Sometime during the night, apparently, Wetzler gave up the ghost.  Stewart, who said she thought he had just passed out, got up to leave.

"I closed the bedroom door and never went back in. I just thought he was sleeping. You know, some people when they drink quite a bit they sleep quite a bit. I didn't think anything of it," Stewart told the TV station.  When she left, however, she took his guitars, his truck, and other items.  "I thought he passed out, went to sleep or something and I'm a crack addict and I stole some things from him," she said.

Police said she pawned Wetzler's items, used the money for crack, and then did the nasty with 22 other men before being arrested.  "It was a sex rampage," West Melbourne Police Department Cmdr. Steve Wilkinson told firstcoastnews.com.

Police also said Stewart went back into Wetzel's apartment after his body was removed and stole more items, which she denies.  A preliminary autopsy reveals that Wetzel died of natural causes.

Bad things come in threes...

OK...so maybe there are compelling reasons not to steer clear of the Classic Inn if you're driving through the town of Waldo and want or need to stop for the night.  Even if the police have been investigating since two dead bodies were found at the motel Thursday afternoon, according to Gainesville.com.  After all, said an Alachua County Sheriff's spokesman, "There’s no indication that it’s anything other than a very odd coincidence."

Argument scatters dad's ashes in the wind

A parking dispute resulted in a woman's father's ashes being tossed on the ground, according to the NWFDailynews.com. The Fort Walton Beach woman told deputies her neighbor was upset about where she had parked and knocked a box with her father's ashes from her hands. A bag containing the ashes ripped and some of the contents spilled out. After telling him what the bag contained, she said, the man grabbed the bag and tried to spill the remainder of the ashes.

High-stakes poker turned very deadly

Several Palatka area men gathered at a former jook joint to play high-stakes poker last Friday night. One of the men lost heavily and left. But authorities say he came back later in the evening intent on collecting his losses. When they arrived Saturday morning, the owner of the place and his daughter found three of the poker players lying on the floor, dead from gunshot wounds, the Palatka Daily News reports. "The room had blood everywhere," said the daughter about the grisly scene.

Clues to mysteries lie in murky canals

Remember the strange tale of the man who had been missing for 15 years who was found in a South Florida canal, his bones still strapped into the seat of his Mercedes coupe? Detectives say they know there are answers to more mysteries hidden beneath the murky waters of 2,000 miles of canals in Broward and Palm Beach counties, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

Indeed, clues to some mysteries have already been recovered. The Palm Beach County Medical Examiner's Office has about 50 sets of unidentified remains, several of them pulled from canals. The canal where the man was found is considered a hot spot for people to dump cars -- either stolen or abandoned for insurance fraud. It is seven miles long and runs along a narrow two-lane road. There are places where a car can hit the water and weeds and can't be seen from the road.

Body parts found in Ormond Beach canal

A fisherman made a gruesome discovery this morning in a canal near Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach: a bagful of body parts, the Orlando Sentinel reports. Police later found several more large, black plastic bags with body parts in the murky canal water.

Authorities offered no details except that the remains appeared to be "Caucasian."