Dead woman's rings focus of lawsuit

CINCINNATI, July 11 (UPI) -- An Ohio man is suing his dead fiancee's children, demanding the return of her engagement and wedding rings.

William Riddell accuses the children of taking Laura Wathen's rings from her hand while she was laid out in her coffin, the Cincinnati Enquirer reports. Niki Mancini, Wathen's daughter, says that her mother gave her the rings and that Riddell asked to have them on Wathen's hand for the funeral out of greed.

"This was his way of getting them out of my jewelry box," Mancini said.

Neither side has much to say for the other. Mancini says that when Wathen was diagnosed with cancer, Riddell "pretty much kicked her to the curb."

Riddell's suit seeks return of the rings or $4,500 and return of bedroom furniture he claims as his or $1,000. In court papers filed in Cincinnati, his lawyer says that the rings have "sentimental value."