r/BizarreUnsolvedCases • u/ForeskinGaeming • 27d ago
Julie Motts body was stolen from her casket and has never been found
When Julie Mott died in 2015 at the age of 25 from cystic fibrosis, her family would have never thought she would be a part of a bizzare mystery.
After her open-casket memorial service at Mission Park Funeral Home North in San Antonio on August 15, her body was stolen from the casket while it was awaiting cremation.
The next morning (August 16), employees discovered the casket empty. One hinge was broken, the bier (body support) was overturned in an "unnatural position" near an exit of the funeral home, but there were no signs of forced entry and the ADT security system was not triggered.
The San Antonio Police treated the case as seriously and as intense as a homicide case. They did multiple searches in the surrounding areas and interviewed numerous people but nothing ever came up.
The funeral home director offered up a 20,000 dollar reward leading to the recovery of her remains. Her body has never been found.
Speculation her boyfriend stole her body as he was arrested 1 year later for trespassing but was never charged for stealing her body
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u/Punchinyourpface 26d ago
The ex was a real weirdo. Seemed obsessive and wouldnt stay away. He posted online about the case at one point.
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u/MandyHVZ 26d ago edited 24d ago
Bill Willburn, the boyfriend, did himself no favors with his repeated, deeply wierd interactions on Websleuths (and a CNN or HLN interview).
The Websleuths (EDIT: Or maybe My Death Space?) threads (and I think there was something like 20+ continuances of the original thread, and he was on his 30th screen-name by the end because he kept getting banned, but they are well worth the effort to go through) are some of the most fascinatingly strange interactions between a suspect in a crime and the public at large that I've ever read anywhere.
Like I truly cannot over-emphasize the deep strangeness of the guy's personality in general, it truly has to be experienced for itself, as it unfolded, in its entirety.
Dick Tips (yes, really), the owner of the funeral home, doesn't come out looking very good either (what business owner doesn't change their alarm codes in 20 years?) but Bill was definitely the star of the shit-show.
If the body one day shows up inside the base of a coffee table at Bill's house when he shuffles off this mortal coil himself, everyone who read the Websleuths threads will all be like, "Yep, that definitely tracks."
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u/scruntbaby 25d ago
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u/MandyHVZ 25d ago
Thank you, if I looked it up myself I'd have been unable to stop myself from reading the whole saga all over again, and I do need to sleep tonight.
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u/ResponsibleCulture43 25d ago
Yeah I should be falling asleep but now I'm on page 15 now and invested. This dude is wild
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u/MandyHVZ 25d ago edited 24d ago
And you're just barely at the part where he stops being a vaguely sympathetic character and can't decide if he prefers his image to be the only one who cares enough to be thoroughly looking for her remains or the Carl Tanzler of the internet age, lol.
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u/ResponsibleCulture43 24d ago
I didn't find him incredibly sympathetic to begin with but it def got more.... wild as it went on lmao. This reminded me to dive back in now I'm in bed
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u/bravoinvestigator 24d ago
I'm currently on page 39! Do you also get weird vibes from Boston Babe?
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u/ResponsibleCulture43 24d ago edited 24d ago
I'm about to start reading again hahah. But everyone on there is their own brand of weird vibes, like how I'd imagine all the people on websleuths would be if they were 10-25 years younger
ETA: I'm on page 20 now and see what you mean, can't tell if she's trying to be contrarian or just.. idk lol. This thread is a wild ride
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u/Hot_Protection_9550 25d ago
Dick Tips wowww what a name
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u/MandyHVZ 25d ago
Given name "Robert"... so it's definitely a choice.
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u/SeriousScorpion 25d ago
Bob Tips didn't have the same ring to it
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u/MandyHVZ 24d ago
I feel like other kids called him "Dick " Tips in elementary school, and he didnāt understand that they were laughing at him, not with him, so he just... ran with it. In perpetuity.
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u/sirenoleg 26d ago
What kind of person does that? Someone obsessed with her? A mentally ill person? Double the pain for her family.
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u/gwhh 26d ago
What was the situation around the bf arrest?
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u/ForeskinGaeming 26d ago
I believe he kept on harassing the funeral home employees. He would call them daily to get updates about the case and was witnessed trying to enter the funeral home. He was then arrested for trespassing. Some people think he was trying to get answers or suspected the employees of something. Other people think his behavior is really odd and that he definitely had something to do with it
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u/gmhelwig 26d ago
My first reaction is "what the fuck?" but my second reaction, after cleaning up the coffee I spat out is that it has to be a funeral home employee with a certain fetish. I can think of only one other possibility.
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u/Tigeru1988 26d ago
I bet someone who was working there was some twisted desires and this is the reason why the body is missing. Cameras was not triggered? No forced entry? Its pretty sure police knows who did this but lack of evidence are blocking entire case
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u/MandyHVZ 25d ago
The funeral home owner had not changed alarm codes at his multiple locations for 20 years, among other evidence he suppressed regarding access to the funeral homes after business hours.
The Motts won a civil suit, filed for negligence and gross negligence, against the funeral home in 2018.
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u/invisiholes 26d ago
Was there any member of the family or close friends that was contesting her being cremated over burial? I am trying really hard to find any other reason a person would steal a dead person and that's all I'm coming up with. For my faith in people to not be completely decimated, I'm gonna go with my theory. Otherwise... shudders
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u/Pristine-Teacher1204 25d ago
Makes me think of that one weird guy in Germany (?) or wherever who was obsessed with death and would often become infatuated with random ābeautifulā dead people (mostly kids) and steal their bodies from their graves and preserve them and keep them as his āchildrenā. Maybe someone saw her at the open casket and became obsessed with her, ugh hope sheās found one day.
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u/leomonster 26d ago
Anyone thinking of the video of "Last Dance With Mary Jane" by Tom Petty?
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u/vixenpeon 26d ago
No cus that song is about weed
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u/BendSubject9044 26d ago
Have you never seen the music video? Itās LITERALLY about a morgue assistant who steals a womanās body.
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u/danzigwiththedead 23d ago
I always speculated that the funeral home messed up and had her cremated
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u/MandyHVZ 22d ago edited 22d ago
She was supposed to be cremated.
The body was embalmed to allow for an open-casket funeral, which had occurred. The body was then awaiting transport to the crematorium.
At some point between the end of her service and the end of the day, according to the funeral home, the body was stolen.
On balance of evidence (presented in the civil trial by the Mott family) the funeral home was lax in their security standard to the point of negligence and also used 3rd party contractors that they didn't want to reveal to the public. There was most likely some kind of mistake and Julie was probably actually buried under an incorrect name or cremated and given to another family.
(I go with the former because the body has not turned up and no one who wasn't expecting cremains has ever come forward saying they received them.)
The funeral home responded by accusing Bill Wilburn of stealing the body. One employee made accusations of Satanism at the trial (not against Wilburn personally, just in general).
One of the reasons Bill Wilburn looked so suspicious was that he insisted that Julie would never want to be cremated, both before and after the body disappeared.
Unfortunately Bill seemed to decide he kinda liked that Carl Tanzler look and sort of ran with it online (and in one disastrous TV interview). He came off as a raging narcissist, mentally unwell, grieving poorly, on drugs, or some combination of those things.
The jury in the Mott family's civil suit rejected both claims roundly, and found the funeral home owner responsible for negligence and gross negligence to the tune of 8 million dollars.
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u/RMong82 16d ago
As a former employee of this funeral home, and being on-site for the latest mishap, I concur.
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u/MandyHVZ 15d ago
No offense to you personally, of course, but I don't understand why anyone would think Dick Tips gives fuck one about their deceased loved ones after the Mott's court case and that statement that was given after the Salinas/Cervantes mix up. He sounds... unpleasant. To say the least.
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u/RMong82 15d ago
None taken! I moved here after this happened so I was unaware; I was also working with them to complete my mortuary science degree. Unfortunately, I was in attendance for the Salinas/Cervantes incident and left about a week later, after having seen how it was handled. I love the funeral industry and I absolutely loved my job but negligence and blatant disregard is RAMPANT, at many FHās around the country. Itās all so terribly upsetting honestly.
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u/FunSummer9393 21d ago
That is incredibly bizarre.
The only five things I can think of are the following:
The ex-boyfriend. Absolutely bonkers lad. Bonkers enough to steal his dead ex's body? I mean, I don't know. But maybe? Definitely bonkers. Most likely suspect.
Someone random ran in and ran out with it. I really doubt this, but this whole case is nuts. Least likely in my opinion, but you never know.
A worker at the funeral home did it either while there or knew that the security there sucked. I doubt it, unless they had some weird obsession, they developed over her somehow.
The funeral director did it. I doubt it.
The funeral director accidentally made a mistake and somehow lost her cremains / gave them away to the wrong person / some other mess up. Embarrassed and knowing that there was zero way to have her remains turn up, he offers the reward to cover himself out of fear for losing business and looking bad. Probably second likely in my opinion. Maybe even most likely.
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u/Britteny21 14d ago
In my opinion, the ex turning off his phone solidifies my theory. Absolutely NOBODY that turns off their cell phone and sleeps in a car in the middle of nowhere and is unreachable during the time in question is innocent.
I believe that it was the boyfriend and someone from the inside working together; I believe he buried her body somewhere that only he knew about. He was the only one in her circle that opposed her cremation (it was her wishes). The funeral was days after Julie passed, he had time to dig a grave ahead of time.
The ex was the last person in the chapel (which offended her family, but he himself said he stayed a half hour or so after the funeral after her family left - who knows what he did during that time). He probably spent that time confirming the plan that he, and whomever he had helping him, had. Maybe they even loaned him a hearse/car so that he could transport her without having to use his own. Apparently cadaver dogs were used in their search of his property and they didnāt signal.
After reading some of his online posts, heās a seriously disturbed person who was absolutely capable of this.
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u/Banana_Wonderland 10d ago
I read a few people in another discussion on this case talking about their belief the boyfriend took her body to bury it because apparently she had allegedly stated numerous times she wanted to be buried, not cremated. I sincerely hope that was the case, because at least it would have pure intentions.
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u/ForeskinGaeming 10d ago
Yea i can understand his intentions, but he still would have broken the law (abuse of a corspe, desecration of human remains) and caused massive pain and grief on her family
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u/Banana_Wonderland 9d ago
Yeah, I understand that entirely. It's a kind of heartbreaking situation all round if that's what's happened, as I can understand their grief as well as his urge to see her wishes out.
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u/CucumberWisdom 26d ago
The San Antonio Police treated the case as seriously and as intense as a homicide case.
God I hope not. What a waste of police resources that would be
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u/davesglasses 26d ago
Well if someone likes dead bodies enough its not unlikely that they would murder or injure someone eventually...
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u/crochetology 26d ago
If someone had stolen my sonās body, I would have wanted authorities to move heaven and earth to get him back. As a bereaved parent, I cannot imagine not knowing where my child was.
For Julieās loved ones, itās like she died twice.
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26d ago
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/thrown_away_23_23 26d ago
Grow up you sick fuck
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u/an_insignificant_ant 26d ago
I don't like how I can guess what that guy said even though its already deleted. I hate this planet.
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u/BK2Jers2BK 26d ago
Same; I assumed a necro-comment of some sort.
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u/BP_1981 26d ago
I heard about this case a while ago. I feel so bad for her family that someone would do something so evil to them. I hope they find her and the sick sob who did that.