Police: Body stolen from casket at Texas funeral home

Anusha Ghosh Roy | KENS-TV, San Antonio, Texas

Show Caption Hide Caption Young woman's body stolen from casket after funeral A Texas family is desperate to be reunited with their daughter's body, which was taken from a private visitation area at a San Antonio funeral home.

SAN ANTONIO, Texas — The corpse of a 25-year-old woman was stolen from inside of a San Antonio funeral home last week, police say.

According to investigators, the body of Julie Mott was taken from her casket at Mission Parks Funeral Chapel North after her service on Aug. 15.

"It's really quite concerning," said San Antonio police Sgt. Javier Salazar. "We are hoping that the public may be able to help assist us."

Salazar said that after Mott's service ended around 1:30 p.m., a casket with her remains was taken into a private visitation area in the back of the funeral home. The funeral home was locked up and secured around 4:30 p.m.

Police believe during that three-hour window, someone removed Mott's body from the casket.

"The next morning when they came back to the funeral home, they discovered that the casket Ms. Mott had been in for the service was actually empty," Salazar said. "Her remains had been removed."

Mission Parks Funeral Home is offering $20,000 to help catch the person responsible.

"We just want our daughter's remains returned so we can have some closure to our grief," said Mott's father, Tim Mott.

Julie Mott died on Aug. 8 from cystic fibrosis.

Contributing: The Associated Press