John Jefferson
Tyler Hern (Highland Heights Police Department).
A Kentucky man called 911 to report the death of his wife, but when first responders arrived, they noticed she had actually been dead for “seven to 10 days.”
Tyler Hern, 42, told 911 dispatchers on Feb. 3 that his wife, Laura Hern, 37, “had been sick for about four weeks” and that he needed an ambulance, according to reporting by WLWT, a local NBC affiliate. He also told dispatchers, “My wife’s dead.” When police arrived at the couple’s home in Highland Heights, which is near the Ohio border some eight miles south of Cincinnati, they found Laura’s body in the bedroom, lying on the bed, showing “obvious signs of decomposition.”
In a police report obtained by WXIX, a local Fox affiliate, Hern sat for an interview with Highland Heights police and admitted that he had found his wife dead several days before calling 911, but held off on reporting her death. Instead, he spent “an estimated seven to 10 days” with her decomposing corpse in the apartment they shared.
During his interview, Hern also reportedly admitted that he used Laura’s phone to text her family members as they contacted her in the days after she could no longer respond. Police stated that the texts were intended to “conceal her death.”
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The circumstances surrounding Laura Hern’s death are currently under investigation, and police did not disclose a cause or manner of death. Police called the case an isolated incident and clarified that there was no threat to the community.
Tyler Hern was booked into the Campbell County Detention Center on $500,000 bond. He was charged with felony abuse of a corpse. He made his first appearance in court to be arraigned on Feb. 4 and a pretrial conference is scheduled for March 3.
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