Mortuary’s license revoked for cutting corpse

updated 3:17 p.m. ET June 2, 2009

COLUMBIA, S.C. - The South Carolina funeral board has revoked the licenses of a funeral home and its director for cutting the legs off a 6-foot-7 man so his corpse would fit in a casket.

State licensing spokesman Jim Knight says the Board of Funeral Service voted Monday to revoke the funeral director license of Michael Cave and the license of Cave Funeral Services of Allendale.

Knight says the board also fined Cave the maximum $500 and ordered him to pay $1,500 for the investigation.

Cave did not immediately return messages left at his home and business Tuesday.

The body of James Hines was exhumed earlier this year because of rumors that circulated after he died in 2004. His widow said investigators told her his legs had been cut off between the ankle and calf to fit the coffin.

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