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WEST JORDAN — The owner of a West Jordan removal and embalming service has been charged with stealing a dead man's wedding ring.
David Jacobsen owns Jacobsen's Removal and Embalming Service. He faces one count of theft, a third-degree felony, according to charges filed Tuesday in 3rd District Court.
According to court documents, investigators say Jacobsen stole the gold ring, valued at $1,500, from the body of Peter Mrowiec. Mrowiec was one of two men who died in a plane crash in Nephi on Aug. 30.
Mrowiec's wife requested the ring when her husband's body was cremated but she never received it. Investigators reviewed records of who had possession of the body.
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A Utah County man killed in a plane crash had agreed to accompany a pilot he didn't know for free so he could obtain enough training to fly the plane home, a friend said.Jacobsen's company transported Mrowiec's body from the medical examiner's office to Gardner Mortuary as scheduled, along with an inventory sheet listing a "yellow colored ring," which had been sealed in a small bag and attached to the body.
The autopsy assistant who released the body to Jacobsen said she went through the inventory line by line before giving him the ring and Mrowiec's additional property, charges state.
Once the mortuary received the body from the medical examiner, the ring was gone. Court documents state Jacobsen told police he did not inspect Mrowiec's personal belongings and does not recall seeing a ring. However, the documents say Jacobsen signed that he had received the ring.
Jacobsen suggested perhaps it had been sent to the family of the second man killed in the crash. The wife of the second victim confirmed she received only one ring, which belonged to her husband.
