Shaynna Lauren Sims, 26, was arrested last Thursday at a funeral home. Family members of the deceased woman called police after they witnessed Sims put her hands into the casket. After looking at photographs of what Sims did at the funeral home two years ago, an jury from Oklahoma found her guilty of five charges related to mutilating a corpse.
On April 30, 2015, Sims gained entry to the funeral home by telling the dead woman’s family she was a makeup artist preparing the body for viewing. She then cut off Tabatha Lynch’s breasts, a toe and locks of hair, and slashed her forehead, while she stole the corpse’s shoes.
Sims allegedly mistaken her husband had cheated on her with Lynch.
“In all these years I’ve worked in the funeral industry, I’ve never seen that happen,” testified Greg Lee, funeral director at Moore’s Eastlawn Funeral Home, where the desecration took place.
The funeral home staffers reportedly didn’t realize Sims had removed body parts until they went to prepare Lynch’s body for cremation. She died of natural causes at age 38.
Police identified Sims, who is 28, as the culprit.
“I didn’t even know she’d be capable of doing that,” Sims’ now-estranged husband, Monty Smith, testified at trial.
Family members told police they saw Sims with her hands inside the casket at the funeral home.
“The funeral director informed us that the deceased’s body was in a viewing room when some friends and family came to pay their respects,” Leland Ashley, a Tulsa Police Department spokesman said.
“When they entered, they observed at least one female with their hands inside the casket.”
Hair was found on the floor near the casket; Lynch’s makeup was smeared on her face.
There was also “a large vertical cut starting from the hairline stretching to the tip of the nose,” according to the arrest report.
Sims was also charged with burglary because she went to Lynch’s apartment afterward and posed as a funeral home worker to Lynch’s family so she could steal the woman’s jewelry.
Police found a folding knife on Sims that contained hair matching the hair next to Lynch’s casket. She also reportedly had scissors, a box cutter and “various pieces of makeup.”
Sims’ attorney said his client was “not in the right state of mind” because she was humiliated and embarrassed by her husband’s wrongdoing. Prosecutors argued that Sims was an “angry woman” upset by her husband’s cheating.
The jury recommended Sims serve 16 years in prison on a total of five counts, including seven years in prison for first-degree burglary and five years for unlawfully removing a body part from someone who is deceased.
She is scheduled for sentencing on June 1.