Heading: Commonwealth v. Keller, 35 D. & C. 2d 615, Penn Court of Common Pleas (1964), p 161.

Facts: Violet Keller and Elton Keller were married on June 29, 1957 and divorce was final on the first week of December 1963. The parties lived separately from 1961 on. From August of 1961 D (Violet) had illicit and regular sexual relations with Roy Schaeffer. In April 1062 she secretly gave birth to a female child whom she claimed was born dead. P stored the body in a box in her basement until it was discovered in 1963. In March of 1963 she gave birth to a child secretly in the bathroom of her apartment. She said the child was born alive. She drowned the baby in the toilet boil and put the body in a box in the bathroom closet. She was later taken to the hospital where she admitted to giving birth after the body was discovered as a result of a police search of her apartment on March 23, 1963.

Procedure: D was indicted for adultery and two counts of a common law misdemeanor, characterized as the "indecent disposition of a dead body." After a 3 day trial D was convicted on all 3 charges. D then filed a motion in arrest of judgement and a motion for a new trial.

Issue: Did the court err in refusing D’s motion to quash the indictment, because it did not charge D with a crime cognizable under the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania?

Holding: Conclude that this bill of indictment does properly charge the defendant in two separate and distinct counts with committing an offense cognizable under the common law.

Rationale: This statute is merely a reenactment of prior statutes which have preserved common law crimes and made them a part of our jurisprudence. There is a sacredness of the dead. It is an offense to dig up or disturb desecrate bodies which have been buried. It is the common law that whatever openly outrages decency and is injurious to public morals is a misdemeanor and punishable at law.

Policy/Notes: Was not found guilty of murder because the coroner was unable to determine how the daughter died. Also cited State v. Bradbury in which the brother burned his sisters remains in his fireplace in order to get rid of them. This was found to be indecently disposing of a dead body, which is a common law offense.

In another case, Baker v. State, Mrs. Baker was indicted for "treating a body indecently." She did not report a dead body for 5 days to authorities in order for her to have time to cash the deceased’s $30 public assistance check.