457-Pound Woman to Be Cremated after Weeks in Morgue

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

457-Pound Woman to Be Cremated after Weeks in Morgue
LAST UPDATE: 3/31/2006 8:25:43 PM
This story is available on your cell phone at mobile.woai.com.

A woman whose 457-pound body sat in a morgue for more than a month during a dispute over the cost of her cremation will be cremated within the next few days, officials said Thursday.

Charlotte Ann Blue died Feb. 6, but she wasn't immediately cremated because Dallas County and the crematorium it contracts with disagreed over the extra dollar per pound charged for bodies weighing more than 300 pounds.

Blue's son, Sam Roberts, said he believed his mother had been cremated under a county indigent plan until he called to get a death certificate.

"That's when I was informed that for the last two months she's been sitting in the deep freeze at the medical examiner's office because the crematorium that does business for the county says, 'Oh well, she's too big (and) too fat," he told WFAA-TV on Wednesday.

Dallas County Medical Examiner Charles Gaylor said the dispute has been settled and that county officials apologized to Blue's family for the delay. County officials approved the funds this week to cremate Blue's body.

Extra costs for extra weight is normal in the crematory business, said Jack Springer, executive director of the Cremation Association of North America.

"It is a much more involved process, and it takes quite a bit more time," Springer said. "You have to do it slower. You have to have somebody there all the time."

He said some crematory businesses even refuse to handle obese bodies.

"A lot of them will not do it at all," Springer said. "It's not digging a bigger hole to put the body in; it really is a much longer process."

Gaylor said Thursday that Blue's body would be cremated within the next few days.

-

Mr. Kennedy

Better to cremate someone that big than waste that much space in the ground. They should charge extra, there is no reason for someone to weigh 457 pounds.

Visit and shop for video games at my Amazon-based store, also get discounted HD DVDs while they last.

Randy Orton

WC's Resident Alchoholic

i agree with that. i don't see why they would complain. what do they want them to charge the same amount for some that weighs 200 lbs. this is like saying a 20 oz. soda should be the same as a 2 liter. it makes no sense.