Daughters battle over father's body months after his death

GALVESTON, Texas – A Galveston woman has filed a federal lawsuit against the Galveston County Medical Examiner's Office, alleging abuse of a corpse, negligence and "wrongful retention" of her father's body. 

Cornelius Wilson, 81, died Oct. 26. 

Instead of being in his final resting place, however, his body is being refrigerated by the medical examiner's office. 

His daughter and primary caretaker for the last three years says she was stunned when she tried to plan his funeral only to learn the office would not release the body.

"They said, 'We're not releasing his body without a court order. There's a dispute,'" Sheila Bell told Channel 2 News. 

According to the medical examiner's office, a  woman claiming to be Bell's half-sister also filed papers to claim Wilson's body. 

"For people who had nothing to do with him to just come out of the woodwork and try to claim him, they have no right to do what they're doing. They're doing what they're doing out of greed. I'm doing what I'm doing out of love. That's my dad. As his daughter, I just want the right thing to be done. I  want him to have some closure," Bell said. 

Channel 2 News attempted to contact the other woman, but was not able to reach her. 

A spokesperson for the office said state law requires a court order when there is a dispute over the disposition of a body. The spokesperson also said cases like these are normally turned over to the county legal department but he was unaware if that had happened or why it was unresolved two months later. 

In a recorded phone call, a medical examiner's office employee told Bell, the case would be decided by Galveston County probate court. But a check of probate court records showed no case filings related to Wilson.