DETROIT – A man who police say took his 93-year-old father's corpse from a Detroit cemetery and stored the body in a freezer has been charged in the theft.
Vincent Bright, 48, was arraigned Friday on a charge of disinterment of a dead body. The charge carries a 10-year maximum penalty.
His bond was set at $75,000 and will be back in court Jan. 24 for his preliminary examination.
His attorney, Gerald Karafa, said he thought the bond was a little high but that it was probably done because of the publicity in the case.
"I think it is an unusual case for anyone to take. It is not something you see every day," Karafa said.
Read: Casket, body stolen from cemetery.
On Jan. 14, it is alleged that Bright went to the 10700 block of Gratiot to Gethsemane Cemetery and took the body of his father, Clarence Bright, which was inside a casket near a burial site.
Police took Bright's son and another man into custody the next day after discovering the casket in a van at a gas station at Harper Avenue and Dickerson Street.
Bright's body was later found in a freezer in the son's home on Eastlawn Street.
---Gas station where empty casket was found
Sources said Bright's son had told family and friends he thought God would bring his father back to life. In fact, when police picked him up he was reportedly saying, "Wake up daddy. Wake up."
The story from the beginning:
Read: Coffin, body stolen from Detroit Cemetery
Read: Casket stolen from Detroit cemetery found, son taken into custody
Read: Missing father's body discovered in Detroit home on Eastlawn Street