Rope found in throat during embalming leads to murder charge

By Frank Kummer, STAFF WRITER
Posted: June 23, 2012

At first, Philadelphia police say, 70-year-old Kathleen Mcewan appeared to have died of natural causes when officers arrived at her Upper Roxborough apartment and oversaw transportation of her body to a funeral home.

But workers at the John J. Bryers Funeral Home in Willow Grove discovered something else the next day as they prepared Mcewan's body for embalming: up to 10 inches of rope stuffed down her throat, along with a candy wrapper.

As a result, Geraldine Cherry, 50, of the same apartment complex, according to police, was charged Wednesday night with murder and held without bail Thursday at the Philadelphia Detention Center.

No motive was known, and the relationship between Cherry and Mcewan was unclear.

Police said there was no reason to suspect foul play when they responded to a call June 10 that a woman had died at the Parker Place apartments on the 300 block of Parker Avenue. So Mcewan's body was taken directly to the funeral home.

Jeff Thompson, the funeral director, said nothing appeared amiss when he began readying the body for embalming. It was only when he and another staffer were doing the prep work on June 11 that they noticed the rope.

"I've done this for 20 some years, on thousands of people, and obviously I knew right away this didn't appear to be a natural cause of death," Thompson said. "We called the medical examiner."

Thompson described finding what he said was eight to 10 inches of cotton rope, similar to what might be used as a drawstring in pants or a hoodie, lodged deep in the woman's throat. He also found the wrapper.

"It's a sad case," Thompson said.

A preliminary hearing for Cherry was set for July 11.

Contact Frank Kummer at fkummer@philly.com.

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