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PROVO — An Eagle Mountain woman faces criminal charges after police say she wheeled a dead man sitting in an office chair into a motel room.
Francesca Delfina Farias-Swenson, 21, was charged Monday in 4th District Court with abuse or desecration of a dead body, a third-degree felony; obstructing justice, a class A misdemeanor; and failing to report finding a dead body, a class B misdemeanor.
On July 6, Provo police were called to the America’s Best Inn & Suites, 1625 W. Center, after Farias and another man were seen “pushing the body of the deceased into the motel parking lot on a wheeled office chair,” according to charging documents.
When police arrived, they discovered that Farias and the deceased man — who was “in full rigor mortis” — had been staying in the same hotel room, the charges state. The man died from a drug overdose, according to police.
“Further investigation revealed that defendant took pictures and videos of the deceased as he was overdosing and for some time after he had died. Some of these videos and images were captioned with phrases like, ‘Vogue,’ ‘Drugs kids’ and ‘Don’t do drugs kids,’” according to the charges filed in 4th District Court.
Farias began recording videos about 6:45 a.m. that day.
“A video taken at 11:09 a.m. shows the deceased experiencing agonal breathing and it is believed these are his last breaths,” investigators wrote in the charging documents.
In another video taken at noon, the victim appeared to be deceased and “the beginning stages of decomposition” were showing, the charges state.
“From 4:47 a.m. to 12:10 p.m., (Farias) made 34 phone calls, FaceTime videos, and Facebook Messenger calls. None were to contact emergency services to summon emergency medical assistance for the deceased,” charging documents say.
When police interviewed Farias and asked if she regretted not calling 911, “she stated that she did not because she was at peace” and later stated, “People die all the time,” according to the charges.
The name of the man who helped Farias wheel the deceased man into the hotel was not provided in court documents.
Farias and the man “had removed evidence of the overdose from the scene and hid other items in the water tank of the toilet or by flushing them,” a police affidavit states.
