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Police: Kentucky Man Lived With Girlfriend’s Corpse After Killing Her

By Chelsea Hoffman
Published on: 08:08 PST, Jul 26, 2016

A Kentucky man has been arrested after authorities say he committed a series of disturbing acts in his Louisville apartment. The Dreamin’ Demon reports that 48-year-old Jonathan Herndon has been charged with a list of crimes in association with killing his girlfriend. However, the most disturbing part of this case isn’t the killing of the woman, but what he did with her for days following her violent death.

Authorities in Louisville say they were called to perform a welfare check on the woman who inhabited the apartment with Herndon. A friend of the alleged victim was worried about her after not having contact with the woman for a couple of days. When police arrived at the residence, they found the Kentucky man unconscious on the couch. He had apparently taken an intentional overdose of an unspecified substance. Authorities have noted that a detailed suicide note was found nearby the man’s unconscious body, but they have not clarified the contents of the note.

Upon searching the apartment, authorities in Louisville also discovered the deceased body of Constance Thomas. According to ABC News 30, the woman was found decomposing under a pile of dirty laundry. A garbage bag had also been wrapped around her head. The Kentucky woman had reportedly been dead for days, though reports haven’t clarified exactly how many days authorities believe she had been deceased. What is being reported is that the official cause of death in her case is blunt force trauma. In other words, she may have been beaten with an object, which led to her death. Authorities in Louisville haven’t haven’t identified the weapon allegedly used in the violent slaying.

While searching the apartment, authorities also found the body of a dog, which was the pet belonging to the victim in this case. Police aren’t sure at this time if the dog had died from neglect following the woman’s death or if it was intentionally killed by the Kentucky Woman.

This isn’t the first time someone has been accused of living with a corpse after the death of another. In 2014, an Indiana woman was arrested after the body of her husband was found in their residence. Not only had the woman failed to report the death of the elderly man, but she chose to live with his corpse for the nine months that he had been dead prior to police intervention. The woman later pleaded guilty in association with the incident but has argued that she did what she did in order to honor her husband’s post-mortem requests. The elderly man wanted to decompose openly, as opposed to being buried.

Also in 2014, it was reported that a Brooklyn woman lived with her mother’s corpse for approximately three years. She also slept next to the woman’s decomposing skeletal remains and even propped her up on the dinner table in order to enjoy meals with her. This case has been compared to the film Psycho, because the woman in question is alleged to have also dressed like her deceased mom.

Most recently, a so-called “hoarder” has attracted attention after the body of her romantic partner was found under approximately two feet of garbage and junk in their residence. Authorities believe the 78-year-old man died sometime in December, but the 61-year-old woman did not report the death, nor did she bother doing anything with his body. Bizarrely, the woman in question has attracted attention before for doing the same thing a few years back with her sister.

In this latest case out of Kentucky, authorities have charged Jonathan Herndon with murder, tampering with physical evidence, and abuse of a corpse. Those three charges, if convicted, could get the man a sentence of life imprisonment as the maximum punishment. At this time, he is being held in jail on bond in the amount of $100,000

[Image via Louisville Police Department]

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