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A man driving from Arizona to Michigan says his girlfriend died in the passenger seat, and he decided to drive the entire way with her body still in the van.
It happened sometime Sunday night.
Ray Tomlinson, of Clinton Township, Mich., is devastated and admits he was likely in denial during this disturbing drive.
The man, 62-year-old Ray Tomlinson, and his 93-year-old mother drove to Phoenix to pick up his 31-year-old girlfriend, who checked herself out of a mental health facility on Sunday.
At some point the girlfriend, who has not been identified, fell asleep on the drive back to Michigan. When Tomlinson tried to wake her, she did not respond and her body was cold.
The man did an Internet search on his phone and found information that said he had 48 hours to take her to a medical examiner or a morgue.
So, he did not stop. Instead, he kept driving.
Eventually, someone from the mental health facility called and Tomlinson told that person the woman had died. He was told to pull over and call police. Still, he kept driving.
The mental health facility called the police and filed a missing persons report. Police were able to make contact with the man and arranged to meet him at his son’s home.
When they arrived, they found Tomlinson sitting on a curb crying, his mother in a wheelchair in the van, and his dead girlfriend – still wearing a seatbelt and sunglasses – sitting in the front seat.
Tomlinson told the Detroit Free Press that he cared “too much” for the woman to leave her body at a hospital and that is why he drove her back to Michigan. He also told the newspaper that he was in “total denial.”
It is believed that the woman had a long-standing drug problem and took pain medication, possibly oxycodone, not soon after the drive began.
So far, Tomlinson has not been charged. That will be up to the district attorney in Macomb County. However, his mother was taken into protective custody.
Agencies/Canadajournal
