Morgue Worker Sentenced For Having Sex With Corpse

Reported by: Tanya O'Rourke
Photographed by: 9News
Web produced by: Neil Relyea

After apologizing to his victim’s family and his own family, ex-morgue worker Kenneth Douglas was sentenced to 18-months in prison for gross abuse of a corpse.

Douglas had sex with Karen Raines’ murdered and nearly decapitated body nearly 26 years ago as it lay in the Hamilton County morgue.

Douglas worked at the morgue at the time and on Tuesday Judge William Mallory Jr. spoke of how Douglas would invite friends to the morgue and drink while at work.

David Steffen is in prison for the murder and rape of Karen Raines in Roselawn in 1982.

Steffen always maintained he never raped Raines and it wasn’t until this summer that DNA testing showed the semen found in her body belonged to Kenneth Douglas.

Douglas’ attorney told the court that his client has suffered greatly and is deeply remorseful for what he had done.

After that, Judge Mallory read part of a letter Karen Raines’ mother had written to him, asking the judge to give Douglas the maximum.

Because the charge is gross abuse of a corpse, the maximum is 18-months in prison.

He will spend another year-and-a-half in prison for a probation violation.