Posted on 10/13/2007 12:16:13 PM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
EDWARDSVILLE — A Bethalto woman told her friends that her teenage son had been killed in an out-of-state car crash. She even arranged a memorial service for him last month.
But authorities said Friday that she lied about the whole thing. Her son is alive and well, and now she faces charges in Madison County Circuit Court.
Meredith A. Sharp, 35, of the 200 block of Rue Sans Souci, allegedly became frustrated with the lack of custody of her 14-year-old son, who has lived in North Dakota with Sharp’s sister since January, said Capt. Brad Wells of the Madison County Sheriff’s Department.
“The best we can understand is that (Sharp) was being asked questions about where the child was, how come the child was in (in North Dakota),” Wells said. “Whether she was embarrassed or tired of answering the question, we don’t know.”
When friends began asking about the whereabouts of her son, Sharp made up a story about how he died in a car wreck, Maj. John Lakin of the Sheriff’s Department said.
“The story about her son being killed in a tragic car accident was to silence those people who were asking her,” Lakin said.
Sharp then submitted a death notice in the Granite City Press-Record newspaper and made funeral arrangements at the Grace Baptist Church in Granite City through Irwin Chapel in Granite City.
The next day, she reneged on the funeral service, telling the funeral home employees that her son had been cremated and she wanted a memorial service for him.
An employee at Irwin Chapel could not comment about the issue Friday, citing its criminal nature.
The newspaper’s death notice for the boy appeared on Sept. 16, stating he had died Sept. 12. A memorial service for the boy was held Sept. 17.
The Telegraph is not releasing the boy's name because of his age.
The death notice stated that financial memorials could be made out to the family. Lakin said that so far, the Sheriff’s Department has not learned of any money being sent to the family in memory of the boy.
Lakin said Sharp’s story unraveled when a church member consoled Sharp’s brother — who lives in the area — about the death of his nephew. The news of his nephew’s alleged death surprised the brother. The brother called Sharp’s sister in Williston, N.D., who said the boy had never been in a car wreck and was doing just fine.
“When the sister learned of this information, she contacted the Sheriff’s Department, and that’s how we got involved in the investigation,” Lakin said.
Sharp was charged Thursday with one count of misdemeanor disorderly conduct for allegedly lying about the death. She was arrested and released on $5,000 bond Friday.
The boy’s father is not involved in the investigation. Lakin said the boy never was involved in any type of car wreck, and that he is “alive and well.
“In this business, we see a lot of really twisted, sick things,” Lakin said during a news conference Friday. “When we learned of this ... what do you think when a mother fabricates the death of her son and goes as far as contacting a funeral home, and then having a memorial service and allowing the obituary to read that ‘memorials were being accepted by family?’
“There is not one thing that she can hide behind on that,” Lakin said.
Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we try to deceive.
Take that Hitlery!
She’s a lying creep, but how is that ‘disorderly conduct’? I thought that was for folks who were disruptive and/or drunk in public?
One can just imagine....
I can’t imagine how it ever came about that she lost custody.
http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/sharp13story.jpg
Now we know how seriously disturbed a woman has to be before the courts will award custody to the father
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