ST. GEORGE — Joshua James Glover, 32, has been charged with desecration of a human corpse, a third-degree felony, in connection with the homicide of his mother whose remains were discovered after she had been missing for months.
Iron County Prosecutor Chad Dotson told Cedar City News the charge was filed after investigators determined that Glover had allegedly disposed of 73-year-old Kay Gosewisch’s remains by burying them underneath a detached outbuilding on the property, which is where they were discovered by officers during a search of the property last week.
Dotson also said the county attorney’s office is not ready to file murder charges against the defendant at this point in the investigation, but further details surrounding the incident will be presented during a preliminary hearing scheduled Monday, one that will likely be postponed for several more days.
“We are going to request a little more time to prepare for that hearing though,” he said. “So it will likely be rescheduled for a later date.”
Glover has remained in custody since his arrest Saturday when he was involved in a short pursuit in Cedar City with police after officers were tipped off that he was at Smith’s grocery store on Main Street driving his mother’s 2007 white Saturn Ion, according to charging documents filed with the court.
In addition to outstanding warrants, Glover was also wanted by police as the sole person of interest in the homicide case involving his mother. The case began with a welfare check that was conducted July 31, when police responded to Gosewisch’s home, who by that point had not been seen in several months, according to police. But when officers arrived at the residence, they did not see anything suspicious.
Things changed two weeks later when police were contacted by Gosewisch’s bank reporting suspicious activity with the elderly woman’s bank account, according to the statement. The manager reported that Glover had been accessing his mother’s account “for quite some time and making multiple ATM withdrawals, along with checks written to Glover that appeared forged.
At that point, officers returned to Gosewisch’s home where neighbors said she was possibly in Washington or Nevada visiting family, which, according to court records, made little sense to the officers when they noticed the woman’s vehicle parked in the driveway.
It wasn’t until officers entered the residence during a third trip to the home where they “observed items that appeared to be suspicious,” according to police.
During a subsequent search of the property, human remains believed to be Gosewisch’s were unearthed and then sent to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy to determine a time and cause of death.
Glover is being held in the Iron County Jail without bail.
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