A woman in Bristol, Virginia has been charged with concealing the body of her mother using dozens of blankets and air fresheners.
Detective Sergeant Steve Crawford with the Bristol, Virginia Police Department said 55-year-old Jo-Whitney Outland faces a felony charge of ‘prohibition against concealment of a dead body.’
Sgt. Crawford told us this investigation began Monday when a relative of 78-year-old Rosemary Outland, hadn’t been able to reach her at her home on Pine Street in Bristol.
That relative reportedly jumped through the window of the home where they saw what they thought was a decomposing body.
“We believe it’s Rosemary Outland, the resident of the home, we are going to get positive identification before the end of the week,” Crawford said.
Rosemary Outland lived at the home with her primary caretaker, and daughter, Jo-Whitney Outland.
Authorities said not only did they find the body of a decomposing woman inside that home on Pine Street this week, they also found the body sitting in a chair, covered in blankets, and surrounded by air fresheners.
According to police that body had been sitting in that home on Pine Street since late December.
“The body was in a chair her legs were propped up and the whole thing was covered in blankets and there were air fresheners on top of the blankets, around the chair and in between the layers of the blankets,” said Crawford. “That’s how we found her, just anyway to try to mask the odor.”
Sgt. Crawford said they counted 54 blankets, and items of clothing covering the body, and 66 air fresheners.
“The body, the blankets, the chair, everything was surrounded by various types of air fresheners, and it was to mask the smell of course, and it got to the point where it didn’t help,” Sgt. Crawford said.
While Sergeant Crawford said, “I looked at it and I didn’t believe that anybody had done, intentionally done anything to her, but that’s what I was able to do at the scene” he added that the body was sent to Roanoke for an official autopsy to determine a cause of death.
Thursday afternoon as we were standing across the street from that very home on Pine Street, we saw Jo-Whitney Outland at a nearby home.
Outland spoke to News Channel 11 on camera, as she began to describe in her own words how her mother died back in December.
“She woke up and said “I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe” and I went over to her and I said, “mom, what’s wrong you can’t breathe?” and then she died. I tried to give her CPR, and it didn’t work,” Outland said.
As we spoke to Outland Thursday afternoon it became clear that losing her mother was too much to bare.
“…and I miss her so much…I loved my mother more than anybody in this world and we were the closest you could possibly imagine,” Outland said.
As the conversation continued, Outland did say she covered her mother in blankets, and used air fresheners as she continued to live in the home with her mother’s decomposing body.
“Yes, I put air fresheners around her body because I was in the room with her every night after she died, except for this past Monday…I covered her up out of respect for my mother, and I covered her up with blankets, yes I did,” Outland said.
It was towards the end of that conversation with Jo-Whitney Outland on Thursday when we asked her why, why didn’t she call police when she thought her mother had passed away?
“I can’t explain to you how come, I couldn’t, except to tell you that I was in a situation where I couldn’t react okay, I don’t know how to explain it, I don’t know what it’s called, but I went into a mode of, just do all the things you do, and come back and stay by your mother,” Outland said.
Sgt. Crawford told us there were also dogs and cats living inside the home along with the decomposing body that were in good shape when authorities found them, and have since been taken out of the home by animal control.
Outland is due in court for an arraignment hearing in the coming weeks.
