'I didn't know she was dead', claims man, 55, charged with necrophilia
By Daily Mail Reporter
14th January 2011
A man accused of necrophilia with a female corpse has sworn he was not aware the woman was dead when they were having sex, police have said.
Richard Elwood Sanden, of Geneva, Ohio, had been charged with abuse of a corpse, possession of marijuna and possession of paraphrenalia when officers viewed a tape filmed on a camera Sanden had tried to hide.
After watching the footage, he was then charged with necrophilia and his bail bond was raised from $4,500 to $500,000.
His charges follow the death of 48-year-old Rebecca Whitehead at an apartment in Washington, Indiana, at around 8pm local time on Saturday night.
Sanden, 55, told officers he met Ms Whitehead through a telephone dating service and had been romantically involved with her for almost four months until her death.
He told officers he and Ms Whitehead had been drinking and smoking marijuana before having intercourse that evening.
When asked if he had been aware that she had died while they were having sexual relations, Sanden insisted he did not and had called an ambulance and performed CPR on her as soon as he noticed she had stopped breathing.
However, during a search of Sanden's apartment, officers found a video camera that he had tried to hide in a bedroom, according to the Washington Times-Herald.
After Whitehead's body had been removed from the property to be transported for an autopsy, Sanden was taken to a local police station where officers viewed the home video footage and subsequently filed charges of necrophilia and mutilating a corpse.
'Through the investigation, with the officers working the case, they've come up with some more information and in co-operation with the prosecutor he's decided there are other charges to be filed,' said Washington Police Chief Tim Guy.
Investigators said other tapes were found at the scene which showed Sanden having sex with other women he had met through the phone dateline.
Ms Whitehead's cause of death has not yet been established, with the results of an autopsy pending.
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