Fact Check

Was a Morgue Worker Arrested After Giving Birth to a Dead Man's Baby?

"A 38-year-old female mortuary worker is being held on $250,000 bond after becoming pregnant by one of her clients — a dead man."

Published Dec. 2, 2010

Claim:
A female mortuary worker was arrested after becoming pregnant by one of the corpses she was preparing for burial.

On 11 November 2010, the Dead Serious News web site published an article positing that a female mortuary worker had become pregnant after engaging in a sex act with a deceased male:

A 38 year old female mortuary worker is being held on $250,000 bond after becoming pregnant by one of her clients — a dead man. The alleged crime took place at the Mourning Glory Mortuary just outside of Lexington, Missouri. Police have charged Felicity Marmaduke with desecration of the dead and necrophilia.

According to a statement made to police by Marmaduke, the alleged victim experienced a post mortem erection while being bathed. Being alone, Marmaduke straddled the dead man and proceeded have sex with him. Much to her surprise, the alleged victim came to orgasm after several minutes. A few weeks later, Marmaduke had a positive pregnancy test while receiving a routine medical exam. Upon telling her doctor the circumstances leading to the conception, the police were notified. Marmaduke was arrested without incident at her dilapidated trailer home a few blocks from the mortuary.

Although the news media occasionally report real cases of workers or interlopers at mortuaries/cemeteries attempting to engage in sex with bodies of the deceased, this item about a female mortuary worker's becoming pregnant through such an activity is not one of them. It was a spoof from the Dead Serious News site, whose "About" page notes that "Dead Serious News is a satirical website that is updated on an irregular basis. With the exception of the names of public figures, all names are fictional."

In October 2016, the World News Daily Report fake news site recycled this story for a similar article:

A 26-year old morgue worker was arrested this morning after a DNA test revealed that her newborn child was the result of a necrophiliac intercourse with a man she was supposed to autopsy.

Jennifer Burrows, an assistant pathologist with the Jackson County medical examiner services, is accused of having sex with dozens of corpses over the course of the last two years, a behavior which led the birth of a baby boy on January 7.

According to the Kansas City Missouri Police Department, her baby is the son of man who died in a car accident in March 2015, and whose body she was supposed to autopsy. They allege that she Ms. Burrows sexually abused more than 60 other dead bodies, belonging to males from 17 to 71 years old.

David Mikkelson founded the site now known as snopes.com back in 1994.