Insets, from left: Victoria Norton and Abel Rivas, according to the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office. In the background is the Woodbury County Court Administration building in Sioux City, Iowa (Google Maps).
Two neighbors in Iowa admitted to misdemeanor charges after authorities said surveillance footage showed them moving a deceased man through the lobby of an apartment building.
Victoria Norton, 62, and Abel Rivas, 65, were charged Tuesday with prohibited actions relating to cremation, a misdemeanor offense. The pair pleaded guilty that same day. Each was ordered to pay $250 in fines and court costs, along with a 15% crime services surcharge.
A criminal complaint obtained by local NBC affiliate KTIV said surveillance cameras recorded Norton and Rivas moving a dead man through Norton’s Sioux City apartment building at about 5 p.m. on Sept. 19.
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Police said the man, whose identity has not been released, died inside Norton’s apartment.
According to the complaint, video showed the two removing the man’s body from Norton’s apartment and placing him upright in a chair beside the elevators. Norton then called 911, but investigators said she gave first responders a false account when they arrived. Rivas did not speak with emergency personnel or explain what had happened.
Investigators later concluded that the man died from natural causes. After learning of that determination, Norton acknowledged that the death occurred inside her apartment. Authorities have not disclosed her relationship to the man.
Norton and Rivas were arrested after the charges were filed, though neither spent time in jail. Neither neighbor was charged in connection with the man’s death.