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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Funeral Home Closed After Dead Man’s Legs Sawed Off

COLUMBIA, S.C. (CN) - An administrative law judge in the state's Capitol on Tuesday ordered the closing of a funeral home at which an employee sawed the legs off a tall dead man in 2004 so that his body would fit in a casket.

Michael Cave, owner of Cave Funeral Home in Allendale, S.C., a small town near the South Carolina-Georgia border, had asked Judge Deborah Durden to rescind a state Funeral Board's decision last month to revoke both his and his funeral home's license.

He argued that his license shouldn't be revoked because the employee acted without his knowledge.

But after a brief hearing this morning, Durden affirmed the ruling, putting Cave out of business.

The funeral director admitted in administrative court that an employee cut the legs off 6-foot-7 James Hines five years ago, and said he did not tell the family what had transpired because he didn't want to add to their grief.

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