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| The shallow grave |
(Scroll down for video) Police found a dead man buried in a shallow grave in the backyard of the family home, according to police reports in California.
“I was unable to pay for a funeral,” an Apple Valley woman allegedly told sheriff's deputies. The woman buried her husband, Thomas Winn, in a shallow grave in the backyard of the couple’s home a week after the man died. Investigators are trying to determine whether the man died of natural causes.
Apple Valley Deputies were called to a house in the 16000 block of Navajo Road at 1:00 pm on Wednesday after receiving a welfare check request on a 63-year-old man, authorities said.
In the house, officers found the 59-year-old man's wife, Yvonne Winn, who told officers that her husband, had died last week, according to sheriff's officials. She told officers that since she couldn’t pay for a funeral she decided to bury him in the backyard.
The man's body was found in a shallow grave, and his body seems to have no obvious signs of trauma.
The woman was not detained pending a cause of death ruling by the coroner's office, according to Cindy Bachman, who is spokesperson for the sheriff's office.
It is a violation of state health and safety code to bury a human body in any place other than an approved and recognized cemetery.Mobile video not loading? Click here to view