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Woman charged with stealing van with corpse inside
Around 7 p.m., Fort Worth police received a 911 call from a mortuary transport employee stating he left the transport van running near the ambulance bay while he went inside the hospital. When he came back out, the van was gone.
FORT WORTH, Texas - Fort Worth Police arrested a woman they say stole a van and with a corpse inside of it on Tuesday.
35-year-old Valerie Traglor-Ellis is facing charges of auto theft and abuse of a corpse.
Late Tuesday night, police found a stolen mortuary transport van with a corpse inside parked on the perimeter of the Fort Worth Zoo.
A driver passing by alerted police that a van was abandoned off Park Place Avenue in a wooded backstreet.
Valerie Traglor-Ellis (Source: Fort Worth PD)
Officers had been looking for it after police say Taglor-Ellis took it from the JPS Hospital parking lot earlier that evening.
Around 7 p.m., Fort Worth police received a 911 call from a mortuary transport employee stating he left the transport van running near the ambulance bay while he went inside the hospital.
READ MORE: Police chase woman in stolen vehicle through Tarrant County
When the employee came back outside to the parking area, the van was gone. He told police a corpse was inside the transport van, and he was at JPS to pick up a second corpse.
"We had witnesses in the area that noticed the woman walking by the car and seemed suspicious," said Fort Worth Police Officer Tracy Carter. "She noticed the window was down. She jumped in it and took it for a ride."
Police say Traglor-Ellis didn’t take the van far, ditching it two miles away outside the zoo. Officers canvassed the area and found her on foot nearby.
"They found a woman that fit the description of the witness from JPS," Carter said. "The woman still had the same clothes on."
Investigators also pulled the zoo’s surveillance video to confirm Traglor-Ellis was the driver. She was arrested for theft and abuse of a corpse.
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Woman arrested for stealing van with corpse inside
Police said Valerie Ellis stole a mortuary van from JPS Hospital in Fort Worth. The van was parked and running in front of the hospital while the driver was retrieving a second body.
Police say they don't know her motive or whether she knew there was a body in the back of the van. They do say both the body and vehicle were intact and not damaged.
"This was a thing that could have went bad, but we were able to apprehend the woman and take her to jail," Carter said.
According to public records, Traglor-Ellis has multiple misdemeanor charges in Tarrant County and Wise County. She’s in the process of being transported to the Tarrant County jail.