Woman sues over husband's second grave

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DALLAS, Feb. 7 (UPI) -- A Texas woman is suing her brother-in-law's funeral home after she discovered her husband's second grave.

Shelia Stanmore's husband, Kevin Stanmore, was shot and killed in 2008 by a police officer in Grand Prairie, Texas, after a standoff. His brother runs Stanmore Funeral Homes in East Texas and offered to prepare Kevin's body for burial, WFAA-TV, Dallas/Fort Worth, reported Thursday.

Stanmore said she had her husband buried in Dallas so she could visit his grave, which she did every day for the first year after his death. She said it brought her great comfort to know his body was there.

Last year, however, she attended a funeral for her mother-in-law three hours east of Dallas, where she discovered a small plaque with her husband's name. Family members said the plaque marked the spot where her husband's organs were buried.

"I screamed," she said. "I cried, and I took it out of the ground. I became very angry."

Stanmore says Stanmore Funeral Homes removed the organs from Kevin's body without her knowledge or consent, leaving her with a "hollow corpse."

"I feel like his body was desecrated," she was quoted as saying, "and he didn't deserve that."