Man: 'Religious reasons' for body on ice

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., March 10 (UPI) -- A man found at a Newport Beach, Calif., hotel with a dead woman's body in a tub of dry ice said all of his actions were religiously motivated.

Authorities said Stephen David Royds was arrested with a small amount of cocaine Thursday and the body of Monique Felicia Trepp was found in his Fairmont Hotel room shortly thereafter, the Orange County (Calif.) Register reported Monday.

"Everything that happened was for religious reasons," Royds said from his jail cell. He repeated the statement four times and declined to elaborate on its meaning.

Royds is scheduled to be arraigned Monday on drug charges, but he has not been implicated in Trepp's death.

"He is being interviewed about what may have happened," said police Sgt. Evan Sailor.

John Browning from Brown Colonial Mortuary said people are not required by the law to immediately bring a dead body to a mortuary.

"The body legally can stay home until they want to deliver the body (to the cemetery) on their own," he said.