ALTON • Spurred by cases in which bodies of overdose victims were moved to thwart investigations, Illinois state Rep. Dan Beiser, D-Alton, is sponsoring a bill to make unauthorized movement of a corpse a felony.

It also would criminalize something that even Madison County Coroner Steve Nonn thought was already illegal — having sex with the dead.

Beiser said he introduced the legislation at the request of Madison County State's Attorney Tom Gibbons and other law enforcement officials. Gibbons called the relocation of overdose victims an "impediment to investigation" in several cases.

Prohibiting sex with a dead body corrects an obvious omission in the law, Beiser said.

If the measure passes, sex with a corpse would be a Class 2 felony, with punishment ranging from probation to seven years in prison. Unauthorized removal of a corpse would be a Class 4 felony, with a penalty ranging from probation to three years.

Nonn said bodies of several people who died of drug overdoses in Madison County over the past year or two were taken from where they died. One was abandoned in a cemetery, another left on a road.

"That definitely needed to be addressed," he said.