Family Fights Over Child’s Body After Tragic Death

The parents of a six-year old boy from the Dallas-Fort Worth area are fighting over the control of their son’s remains.  This dispute marks the end of a very sad story:

• Gerren Isgrigg, six-years old, was blind, deaf, and unable to move.
• The boy’s mother, who cared for him for three years, recently abandoned him with his maternal grandparents.
• After a few weeks, the boy’s grandmother left the boy in a park with a note stating that he was six, had seizures, and needed medication and a feeding tube. He was not discovered by anyone and died.
• The divorced parents, who the grandparents claim wanted nothing to do with their son, are now in dispute over the boy’s body.
• The boy’s father wants a christian burial and funeral in Arizona; the mother wants the body to be cremated or buried in Arkansas, Oklahoma, or Missouri.
• A Collin County probate cout has granted the father a temporary restraining order over the body until a compromise is reached.

See Valerie Wiggleworth, Father obtains court order over burial of son, Gerren Isgrigg, Dallas Morning News, May 12, 2010.

Special thanks to Joan Leslie (attorney, Dallas, Texas) for bringing this to my attention.