Sea Burial: Ur Doin' it Wrong

The Captain regrets that his nautical expertise was not sought out about the proper way to deposit the dearly departed in the drink.

A burial in his beloved sea was the wish of Daniel Scott Lasky, who died last week at his home in Hickory, N.C.

But his family's efforts to comply with that wish led to a fisherman's startling discovery and sent homicide investigators scrambling to solve the mystery of a body at sea.

Lasky, a 48-year-old grocery worker, died of Lou Gehrig's disease on Sept. 8. The next day his family packed his body in dry ice, loaded it into a van and drove to Fort Lauderdale, where Lasky once vacationed. After stopping overnight in Daytona Beach, the family and Lasky's remains arrived in Fort Lauderdale on Friday.

They chartered a local fishing boat, the Mary B, and Lasky's widow, Sharon, her pastor and other family members, along with the boat's captain and crew, motored four miles offshore from Port Everglades. They tendered their final goodbyes and consigned Lasky to the deep. Family members then fished for a spell in his memory.

[...]

But the sea proved no resting place. Though weighted down, Lasky's body resurfaced Saturday. About 9:30 that morning, a fisherman reported a man's body floating about four miles offshore. Its wrappings had come undone. Sheriff's marine deputies raced to the scene, along with the Coast Guard. Homicide detectives waited onshore.

[Palm Beach Post]