MORGAN COUNTY, Ky. — The former coroner in Morgan County, Kentucky, has been accused by a man’s family of mistreating his body by leaving it in a hot car overnight, according to a lawsuit.
The lawsuit from Nathan Peyton’s family claims that his body was left so badly decomposed that some people at the funeral got sick because of the smell, according to WLEX.
Part of the lawsuit includes an abuse of a corpse claim, according to the news outlet. It said that the coroner, Raymond Vancleave, did not have a place locally to store bodies. His privileges were reportedly suspended from using a hospital in the area’s facilities because he didn’t remove the bodies fast enough.
Nathan Peyton died on Dec. 30, 2022, an abnormally warm day, the lawsuit said, according to WLEX. His body was supposedly placed in a black body bag by Vancleave in his coroner’s vehicle next to his house instead of taking it to the state medical examiner’s office for an autopsy to be conducted the following day.
Nathan Peyton’s brother, Basill Peyton, said that Vancleave did not operate out of an office. Instead he worked from his house.
Since Vancleave lost those freezer privileges, Nathan Peyton’s body was left inside a body bag inside his hot vehicle, WKYT reported.
“When they buried him, he had to remain in the body bag. Closed casket,” Basill Peyton said, according to the news station. “People actually got sick from the odor that was emanating from the casket.”
Vancleave has resigned, according to WKYT.
Other officials were also named in the lawsuit. The lawsuit claims that they should known about Vancleave’s negligence and reckless behavior, the news outlet reported.
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