OSLO, Norway, Aug. 15 (UPI) -- Casey Kasem will be buried in Oslo, Norway.
Norwegian government official Wenche Madsen Eriksson confirmed arrangements have been made for Kasem in the country. The radio icon died at age 82 on June 15 after daughter Kerri Kasem chose to remove him from life support. Kasem had been living with Lewy body dementia, and experienced complications from sepsis shortly before his death.
Kasem has remained unburied in the two months since his death. Wife Jean Kasem has rights to the body, and the remains were being stored at a funeral home in Montreal. Casey's children and Jean share an acrimonious relationship, and struggled for months over legal rights to the DJ's care. The battle continues over his remains, and son Mike Kasem has declared a Norway burial goes against his father's wishes.
"There is no connection my dad has with Norway," he asserted in a statement. "I don't know if Jean has any ties to Oslo. She certainly has never mentioned it in the last 35 years. Check the exhumation laws there; sounds like a possibility that is the reason she will bury him there. My dad deserves to be buried where he specifically asked to be buried: Forest Lawn. Everyone keeps asking for motives as to why Jean acts how she acts. I don't have an answer."
Kerri accused Jean of elder abuse before her father's death, and the Santa Monica Police Department is still investigating the claim. Kerri's private investigator, Logan Clarke, is confident he and the police have "so much evidence -- video, photos, witnesses" it will most likely not be necessary to exhume the body.
"We don't know what [Jean Kasem's] plans are," Kerri's spokesman, Danny Deraney, said. "We just know that she wants to keep Casey away from family and friends and by the looks of it, hiding from law enforcement."
