Widow Says Eating Dead Husband's Ashes Helps Her Cope (VIDEO)

Losing a loved one is never easy, but when 26-year-old Casie lost her husband, Shawn, to a sudden asthma attack, the grieving process went in a direction she never expected.

Casie, a resident of Fayetteville, Tenn., appeared on the season finale of the TLC series My Strange Addiction found herself eating his cremated ashes as a form of comfort.

When the couple first met in 2008, it seemed like a match made in heaven.

"Everything I had ever wanted in a man was right in front of me," Casie said during the episode. "And it felt so great."

Casie's mom, Linda, says the two-and-a-half years her daughter was with Shawn were probably the only time in her daughter's life that she was truly happy.

But the good times ended after Shawn died of a sudden asthma attack, a day Casie says when her "own world stopped turning."

At first, her mourning took the form of carrying around her husband's cremated ashes wherever they went, including the grocery store, movie theaters and restaurants, the Daily Mail reported.

Things soon went slightly more extreme one day when some of the ashes spilled onto her hand.

"I didn't want to wipe them off because that's my husband and I don't want to wipe him away," she said. "So I just licked it off my finger."

Since then, she has been unable to stop, and estimates she has eaten at least a pound of ashes thus far, with about five more remaining. Despite the cremains having a taste that Casie describes as "rotten eggs, sand, and sandpaper," she has developed a taste for the death dust.

Although many people would find Casie's addiction shocking -- including her in-laws, who don't know she's slowly licking her husband away -- the real danger isn't becoming a social pariah, it's that the ashes also contain chemicals that have been known to induce psychosis when ingested.

There is hope: At the end of the episode, Casie checked herself into an inpatient care facility, and she did not bring the ashes, according to Jezebel.com

Comments

[LivelyLexie]

03:26 PM on 09/20/2011

I feel bad for this woman, but ew, she's become a cannibal.

[debrap424]

09:08 AM on 08/11/2011

this is really sad.

[ss1964]

09:06 AM on 08/11/2011

...not to mention that likely she is also eating someone else's ashes. I don't think it's a super tidy and perfect process. Correct me if I'm wrong about this.

[Michael Alford]

01:05 AM on 08/11/2011

Isn't Cannibalism illegal?? This is just her husband, very very very well done.

[rybalaw]

03:56 PM on 08/10/2011

send her my old Fine Young Cannibal records lol

[Endogenous Light Nexus]

11:49 AM on 08/10/2011

This is only a little bit grosser than the ritual cannibalism that many Catholics and other Christians do every Sunday. And sometimes other times too...

[leah forrest]

05:14 AM on 08/10/2011

this is disturbing, but not half as bad as you people making fun, she needs help.

[JayEsbe]

04:28 AM on 08/10/2011

I'm channeling her dead Husband as I type; OK, I just asked him about this. He said "You gotta be shitting me".

[cheeseandsnark]

03:27 AM on 08/10/2011

I was initially going to remark that despondency makes people do strange things. However, I am wondering if she might have a form of pica, which causes people to crave consuming things like dirt, chalk, or laundry soap. I'm glad she is seeking help. I hope she will be all right.

[cheeseandsnark]

03:31 AM on 08/10/2011

I am also appalled by the number of cruel, ignorant comments regarding this subject. No, pica (if that's what it is) is not a well-known disorder. But remarks about how gross this person is, or, more stupidly yet, about her size, is beyond the pale. Grow up. This individual is suffering. Let us have a little compassion.

[nicko68]

08:47 PM on 08/09/2011

ashes must be fattening

[E Linn]

08:05 PM on 08/09/2011

Two things popped into my head when I first read this article:

1) "I eat dead people"

and

2) as the mother of a son, if my son dies and his wife tries to EAT his ashes, I'd be livid and do whatever it took to get his ashes away from her! That's...ugh...worse than desecrating a grave!

[Matthew Threats]

06:37 PM on 08/09/2011

She asked the box " Hey you wanna watch this" LMAO

[Sandra Baum]

05:13 PM on 08/09/2011

I wonder what she planned to do when they were all gone?

[Annette Hammond]

07:40 PM on 08/09/2011

FOR REAL! That's terrible.She needs a hobby

[lotus321]

05:03 PM on 08/09/2011

Can't even let the poor guy rest in peace. geesh

[Michael Spinney]

05:01 PM on 08/09/2011

I have some left over cat litter she can eat, because that is what ashes look like. This is gross but sad

[Annette Hammond]

07:37 PM on 08/09/2011

No,that is not what ashes look like.I have my sons ashes right here with me(not for dinner)