Call it a case of paying your disrespects.
A North Carolina woman shocked a mourning family when she showed up at a funeral and danced in front of them before opening the casket and striking the body, The Greenville News reported Thursday.
Nicole Leonard, 25, was charged with public disorderly conduct and disturbing a funeral after the incident, which occurred on Tuesday at the Church of God in Gray Court, N.C.
Family members told the paper that they had no idea who she was when she interrupted the service, dancing around and waving a wand around the casket. She then laid her hands on the corpse’s face and struck it with the wand.
But she wasn’t finished yet. Leonard also reportedly took flowers from the top of the casket and hurled them at family members before driving off.
Later, a sheriff’s office lieutenant pulled over Leonard’s Toyota and took her into custody. She admitted that she was the one from the funeral, saying she did it because “it felt like the right thing to do at the time,” The Greenville News reported.
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