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Cops Hunt Man Who Allegedly Stole Funeral Van With Corpse Inside

(Photo credit should read MYCHELE DANIAU/AFP via Getty Images)

Alexander Pease Contributor
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Law enforcement officials in Illinois have identified and are actively searching for a man believed to have hijacked a hearse that had a corpse inside of it.

Deon Howard, 23, is accused of stealing a Rockford funeral home’s vehicle with a body inside and driving it nearly 100 miles to the South Side of Chicago before dumping the body nearby, CBS 2 Chicago reported.

Howard is charged with both unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle and abuse of a corpse, according to 23 WIFR.

The funeral home van was found Sunday near the 1400 block of the Chicago Calumet Heights neighborhood, but no body was discovered inside, CBS 2 reported. The corpse was recovered a couple of miles away by police following a report of a body in an alley on Monday. The man, identified as 47-year-old Curtis Brown, had passed away last Thursday due to natural causes at a local hospital. (RELATED: Family Defends Decision To Display Corpse In Nightclub)

The outlet reported that Brown’s body was not covered up at all but rather it was “dumped” and lying out in the open. Once police obtained and identified the remains, the body was returned to a funeral home and Brown’s family was notified. (RELATED: ‘Necrobots’: Scientists Convert Spider’s Corpse Into A Machine)

The suspect remains at large.