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Report: Burglar smoked ashes of Vietnam vet’s dead wife

By Fran Jeffries
Aug 4, 2014

A Vietnam veteran in Alabama is fighting mad after he claims a burglar broke into his home and smoked his dead wife’s ashes, perhaps thinking they were drugs.

“I was furious,” Phillip McMullen told FOX10 News in Mobile, Ala. “That’s when I almost lost it. That’s what made me want to kill again.”

The burglar broke into McMullen’s home in Mobile County while he was away visiting friends, he told the station. He said he returned home to find that someone had broken into his home through a back window and stolen several items, including a generator, a chainsaw and a knife.

The Air Force veteran said he felt angry and heartbroken when he discovered that the thief had taken the ashes of his wife of 22 years out of a small plastic box on the headboard of his bed, and had smoked the ashes with a homemade pipe.

Prosecutors said if the burglar is caught, he or she will face charges of desecration of a grave.

Explore Read more of the story here.

About the Author

Fran Jeffries is a Newsletter Producer. She joined The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in 2005 as an Education Editor. She worked as a Breaking News Editor and Social Media Producer before joining the Newsletter team.

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