A Kentucky man has been arrested after police say he kept his wife’s body on a couch inside their home for months after she died.
John Emrich, 59, was taken into custody on Friday, June 19, and charged with abuse of a corpse.
According to a police citation obtained by PEOPLE, Emrich allegedly “intentionally treated a corpse in a way that would outrage ordinary family sensibilities.”
Authorities were first alerted on June 17, when the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a niece who said she had not spoken to her 61-year-old aunt, Veronica, since January.
“She had been calling for her, but she was never able to talk to her aunt,” Hardin County Sheriff John Ward told PEOPLE. “She tried to contact her by Facebook and her aunt had quit responding.”
Deputies went to the couple’s home in Radcliff, Kentucky, but no one answered the door. Ward said that, at the time, authorities did not have enough information to force their way inside.
“And under those circumstances, there’s no other information that would warrant breaking into the house,” he explained.
The next day, Emrich’s niece returned to the home on Homestead Avenue with help from police.
Once inside, Emrich allegedly showed the niece where her aunt was.
“Her aunt was laying on the couch in the residence, was covered in blankets,” Ward said. “And, she was deceased and had been deceased for quite some time.”
Investigators later determined that Veronica had been dead since February, according to Ward.
Emrich allegedly told authorities that he “didn’t want to be without her.” Ward said Emrich had also been putting some type of laundry detergent on her body in an apparent attempt to control the odor.
The case remains under investigation, and Ward said additional charges could still be filed.
“There’s possibly other charges that will be coming,” the sheriff said.
However, he added that early findings from the coroner’s office indicate Veronica is believed to have died of natural causes.
Emrich was arraigned on June 22, and a judge set his bond at $5,000 cash only, according to WDRB.
He remains held at the Hardin County Detention Center.
