Woman convicted for mutilating corpse of husband’s mistress during funeral

Luther Vandross was outed as gay after his death.

A woman from Tulsa has been sentenced to 16 years in prison this week stemming from charges relating to the mutilation of a corpse during a funeral home viewing in 2015.

Shaynna Lauren Sims, 28, is set to serve seven years for first-degree burglary, two years for unknowingly concealing stolen property, five years for unlawfully removing a body part from a deceased person, one year for unauthorized dissection and one year for disrupting or interrupting a funeral. District Judge Kelly Greenough also ordered Sims to pay $6,500 in fines.

For the first-degree burglary conviction, Sims is required to spend at least 85 percent in custody before she is eligible for parole. She was granted credit for time served.

— Man’s wife and mistress place dueling obituaries in same newspaper — 

Sims was convicted of cutting the breasts and a toe from the body of 38-year-old Tabatha Lynch at Moore’s Eastlawn Chapel on April 30, 2015, just before the funeral.

She also went to Lynch’s apartment and posed as a funeral home employee in order to steal jewelry from the dead woman and she stole a pair of shoes from the funeral home.

The motive for the desecration was the fact that Sims was a “scorned wife” who was “so eaten up” over claims that Lynch had been in a relationship with Sims estranged husband. She apparently felt the need to get back at Lynch even though she was dead. She had died of natural causes.

 

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