Indiana police are pondering how to charge a woman who staged a funeral for her daughter, who is not dead. "It is just such a bizarre case, we have been talking, trying to figure out what the most applicable charge will be," Sgt. Jon Bales of the Richmond, Ind., police said. "It will probably be attempted theft since she didn't actually get any money. We looked at the fraud statutes, but most of them involve insurance or credit cards."
Pastor Ron Chappell of New Life Ministries Church of the Nazarene, said he accepted Angela Boyd's request for a service for her daughter, who she claimed had been raped and killed by her father in Iowa. Boyd, 38, brought an urn and donation box to the church on Tuesday and read a statement about her daughter's death as the congregation wept. After Boyd finished speaking, her brother, Brian LeMaster, walked to the podium and informed everyone that the girl was not dead.
LeMaster had heard about the funeral plans and contacted family and authorities in Iowa to check on the story. "At first, I am thinking, 'That's right, she has gone to be with the Lord,'" Chappell said. "But then he says he has talked with (the girl's) grandmother and he talked with the police in Iowa and they validated that she is in a facility for children with disabilities and behaviour problems and she is actually alive."
Chappell said that church members adjourned to eat the meal that members had prepared for the family, and while they were eating, LeMaster contacted the girl's grandmother and put her on speaker phone. "If there is anything good to come out of this, it is that (the girl) is alive and everything is OK in Iowa," Chappell said. "But when the father heard about it, he was very upset." Boyd, who is facing sentencing Dec. 6 in two separate theft cases, ran out of the church without collecting the urn or the box and has not been seen since.
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