HAMILTON, Ontario, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- A Canadian woman who lived with her six children in a home with her husband's decaying body inside has been charged with neglect of a body, police say.
Kaling Wald, the 50-year-old wife of the dead man, Peter Wald, was free Friday after being arrested Thursday on charges of neglect of duty regarding a body and indignity to a body, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.
Kaling Wald, who was arrested at a Niagara Region home where the family moved after her 51-year-old husband's body was discovered, is to appear in Hamilton court Feb. 13.
The body was found Sept. 17 by a foreclosure company employee trying to evict the family from their Hamilton home. The cause of death wasn't disclosed.
"It all has to do with the responsibilities of dealing with a dead body," city police Detective Sgt. Steve Hrab said. "You are required to contact the authorities, the coroner, if someone passes away in their home. There are laws to the effect on how we deal with dead bodies."
Dr. Jack Stanborough, the regional coroner, told the CBC last fall Wald's body was in an "advanced state of decomposition" when it was discovered.
"Evidence suggests he'd been dead for weeks, if not months," Stanborough said.
A neighbor, Brenda Dennis, told the CBC she believed Peter Wald had been dead for about four months, noting clouds of flies around a second-floor window where birds pecked at the screen.
Dennis' husband Brian said members of the Wald family sometimes danced and chanted in the back yard while clad in black roads.
Peter Wald was no longer see outside around his prized blue van, painted with religious words and symbols.
