Man receives four years for necrophilia

Gainesville Times - Parker Ward had no answers for why he had sex with the corpse of a woman he found dead inside a camper home.

In a hearing Wednesday in Forsyth County Superior Court, Ward paused before acknowledging to Judge Jeffrey Bagley that he had committed necrophilia.

Bagley sentenced Ward, 54, to four years in prison to be followed by four years of probation, a sentence recommended by District Attorney Penny Penn.

Necrophilia, one of the rarest felony crimes in Georgia, carries a maximum sentence of 10 years.

Asked by Bagley what happened on that night of Dec. 27, Ward began by saying he was "pretty much drunk" that night, having had about six rum drinks.

He said the 43-year-old woman's boyfriend asked him to check on her at her camper in the 2300 block of Canton Highway.

Getting no answer, Ward called the boyfriend, who told him to break down the door. Inside, Ward found the woman lying in bed unresponsive. Several empty prescription pill bottles were nearby.

"I checked her pulse, then tried to give her mouth to mouth," Ward told the judge.

"I knew it was kind of wrong," Ward said before admitting under further questioning that he had sex with the corpse, then called 911.

The death of the woman, whose name is not being disclosed because of the nature of the crime, was ruled an accidental drug overdose.

Authorities estimate she had been dead for about four hours. Her body was cold and rigor mortis had set in, authorities said.

Penn said sheriff's officials suspected her body had been tampered with. Confronted about it, Ward later confessed to investigators, she said.

Bagley said it was the first time he had taken a plea on this offense.

"I would say this is fairly rare," he said. "Certainly, the respect for the deceased is one of the reasons we have this law."

After the hearing, Penn said she was skeptical of Ward's claim of being drunk and that it did nothing to excuse his acts. "No one can be that drunk," she said.

Penn said Ward had previously made advances on the woman and had been spurned. She called the circumstances of the case "sad."