Douglas says that he would hold “parties” with drugs and alcohol while sexually abusing corpses. Deters says that they have confirmed at least three corpses, adding “This guy’s just a pig. I can’t explain why someone would do something like this. … This is off-the-charts weird.” That seems a clinically accurate description. Douglas is already serving a prison sentence after pleading guilty to having sex with the nearly beheaded body of 19-year-old murder victim Karen Range in 1982. He has been tied to two other corpses with DNA evidence.
One was Charlene Edwards who was strangled to death while she was six months pregnant. The other was Angel Hicks, 24.
The criminal penalty for abuse of a corpse is only one year. There is legislation to increase the penalty to five years in Ohio.
Other states have been dealing with a slew of corpse abuse cases, including an intense debate in Wisconsin whether sexually assaulting a corpse is technically “rape.” Oregon recently had a similar debate over the definition of corpse related crimes.
The common law takes a harsh view on the mishandling of corpses. For recent articles, click here and here. The question is whether any of these families will now be able to sue the county for negligence in the hiring, training, or supervision of Douglas. A court may toll the statute of limitations, but they would have to have sued after the time of the disclosure of the abuse.
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