Penalty increase for scene of death, body tampering passed by House

Supporters say a bill passed Thursday by the House will help bring closure to families at times they are grieving the most.

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Anderson (R-Starbuck), HF3469 would make it a felony — up from a gross misdemeanor — to interfere with a body or death scene with intent to conceal the body, conceal evidence or otherwise mislead the coroner or medical examiner. The maximum penalty would be 10 years in prison and a $20,000 fine.

Passed 124-0 by the House, the bill now goes to the Senate where Sen. Bill Ingebrigtsen (R-Alexandria) is the sponsor.

Rep. Paul Anderson

Anderson said the bill comes from an Oct. 2015 incident where the body of Laura Schwendemann was found 12 days after she was last seen at a gas station.

Douglas County Attorney Chad Larson told the House Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Finance Committee in March that Schwendemann and Nickolas McArdell were injecting methamphetamine before she died in his vehicle. Telling police that he was scared of what would happen, McArdell dumped Schwendemann’s body 18 rows into a cornfield where it was found nearly two weeks later by a farmer running a combine.

After leaving the body, McArdell returned to his dealer for more methamphetamine and took Schwendemann’s belongings to her family, saying he did not know where she was.

“I can’t imagine what they went through wondering about their daughter,” Anderson said.

Additionally, the so-called “Laura’s Law” calls for a defendant guilty of the crime to “make full restitution of all reasonable expenses incurred by a law enforcement agency engaged in efforts to locate the body.”

Officials spent more than $20,000 searching for Schwendemann, while fear existed in the community that a murderer could be on the loose.