Inset: Scott Bailey (Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office). Background: Sheridan County Sheriff’s Office in Sheridan, Wyo. (Google Maps).
A man in Wyoming is accused of trying to pressure his half-sister into handing over their father’s ashes by allegedly threatening to circulate damaging claims about her.
Scott Bailey, 61, is facing two blackmail charges after authorities said he warned he would “expose” his half-sister unless she turned over the cremated remains of their father, 83-year-old Albert Bailey Jr. According to an affidavit cited by Wyoming news outlet Cowboy State Daily, Albert Bailey died on Aug. 14 without leaving a will. Under Wyoming law, the report noted, a person’s remains pass first to a surviving spouse before any adult children.
Investigators said Scott Bailey appeared not to know that legal order of priority.
April Bailey backed up her stepdaughter’s account, telling police that Albert Bailey had wanted his wife to keep his ashes. She also described Scott Bailey as having an unstable temperament and a past involving alcohol abuse, according to the report.
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Police said Scott Bailey came to the Sheridan Police Department with his wife and admitted that he left the voicemails. He reportedly apologized and regretted not speaking with his half-sister in person. When officers asked him about the purported act he planned to use as blackmail, Scott Bailey said it was a childhood memory that “could have been a dream.”
Scott Bailey told police that the alleged threat of violence was “just a joke.”
Police arrested and booked him into the Sheridan County Jail.
Scott Bailey is scheduled to appear in court again on Sept. 21, the deadline for prosecutors to present probable cause for the case to continue in Sheridan County’s district court.
The post Man threatened to ruin half-sister’s life over fake childhood secret unless she surrendered his late father’s ashes: Cops first appeared on Law & Crime.