Suit filed over theft of corpse's ring

WINCHESTER – A Union City woman has filed suit against the Winchester funeral home director accused of stealing a wedding ring from her deceased husband’s finger.

Gregory Wade Thayer, 65, was charged in September with theft, a Class A misdemeanor carrying a maximum one-year jail term.

Authorities allege after mourners left a July graveside service for a Union City man in Winchester’s Fountain Park Cemetery, Thayer “opened the casket and reached in and removed a ring from the body of the deceased,” according to a court document.

State police said Thayer then sold the ring to a Richmond pawn shop for $73.

In a Randolph Superior Court lawsuit filed this week, the deceased man’s widow said she had told the funeral home director to leave the wedding ring “on him when he was buried.”

Attorney Dale Arnett wrote in the suit that state police told his client about the theft, “and showed her the ring.”

“The emotional distress (the widow) suffered as a result of the actions of Greg Thayer has caused her to seek medical help for the mental turmoil she is still in,” Arnett wrote. The couple were married for 48 years and had no children, according to the lawsuit.

“The conduct of Greg Thayer, that of stealing jewelry from a corpse, is outrageous,” the suit states.

It seeks monetary and punitive damages, from Thayer and his funeral home, for “intentional infliction of emotional distress and theft.”

Thayer’s criminal trial, also in Randolph Superior Court, was recently rescheduled for Feb. 4.

According to a state licensing database, Thayer Funeral Home, at 327 E. Franklin St., is a “closed facility.”

The database also reflected Thayer’s funeral director license is under “emergency suspension.”

Contact news reporter Douglas Walker at (765) 213-5851. You can also follow him on Twitter @DouglasWalkerSP.