Three men charged with corpse abuse after digging up the cremated remains of two relatives and moving them to a family burial plot

  • Kevin Lewis, 42, his brother Travis Lewis, 37, and their uncle Calvin Lewis, 71, are charged with abuse of a corpse
  • Police say the men dug up the remains of Richard Lewis and his son - who shared the same name - last fall and reburied them in a family plot in Maine
  • The men say they thought they 'had a right' to move family members and the graves were not marked

By ASSOCIATED PRESS and MAIL ONLINE REPORTER

Published: | Updated:

Three men are charged with digging up the cremated remains of two relatives and moving them to another cemetery in Maine (stock image)

Three men are charged with digging up the cremated remains of two relatives and moving them to another cemetery in Maine (stock image)

Three men are charged with digging up the cremated remains of two relatives and moving them to another cemetery in Maine.

Authorities say 42-year-old Kevin Lewis, his brother Travis Lewis, 37, and their uncle Calvin Lewis, 71, are charged with abuse of a corpse.

Police say the men dug up the remains of Richard Lewis and his son - who shared the same name - from a cemetery in Standish last fall, then reburied them in the family plot in Limington.

The elder Richard Lewis was Calvin Lewis' brother and the father of the other two men.

The remains were returned to their original resting place on August 2.

It was the former girlfriend of the younger Richard Lewis - also the mother of his children - who alerted the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office about the ashes being moved.

She learned about the incident in July after Kevin Lewis believed she should know.

She objected to the remains being moved because she had purchased the burial plot for her ex-boyfriend, who died in 2007 in a motorcycle accident, for $200.

His father, whose his ashes were kept at a family member’s house for many years after his death in 2003, was eventually laid to rest in the same spot.

Authorities say 42-year-old Kevin Lewis, his brother Travis Lewis, 37, and their uncle Calvin Lewis, 71, reburied the remains of their relatives in a family plot in Limington, Maine (aerial shot of town shown here)

Authorities say 42-year-old Kevin Lewis, his brother Travis Lewis, 37, and their uncle Calvin Lewis, 71, reburied the remains of their relatives in a family plot in Limington, Maine (aerial shot of town shown here)

Kevin Lewis, who is now based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, told the Portland Press Herald that the men thought they 'had a right' to move family members and the graves were not marked where they were.

'My father’s parents are there [in Limington] and it’s where everybody else will be buried,' he said of moving his father, Richard Lewis and brother, Richard 'Trent' Lewis, to the family plot.

However, the law does not differentiate between ashes and physical remains and the men have been issued a summons to appear in Bridgton District Court on November 18 on a charge of abuse of a corpse.

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