Family of woman whose body was taken from casket sues funeral home in San Antonio
Elizabeth Zavala, Staff Writer
Jan. 20, 2016 Updated: Jan. 20, 2016 12:30 p.m.
Julie Mott, died on Aug. 8 at age 25. Her body was stolen from the Mission Park Funeral Chapels.
Mark D. Wilson/SAENShow MoreShow Less
2of53Dick Tips, Mission Park Funeral Home chairman and CEO, at the construction site of Mission Park Stone Oak Funeral Home in 2006.Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
4of53A missing body, an obsessive ex-boyfriend, a powerful San Antonio couple and a family looking for answers. The bizarre San Antonio case of a 25-year-old's missing body made nationwide news in 2015. Now, two years later, new details are being revealed in court records. Click through to see everything we know about the case so far.SAENShow MoreShow Less
1. Funeral services for Mott were held at the Mission Park Funeral Chapels North facility, 3401 Cherry Ridge St., on Aug. 15, 2015, which would have been Mott's 26th birthday.
Mark D. Wilson/San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
2. After her passing, Mott's Facebook page transformed into a memorial of her life, with friends and family posting memories and touching messages.
Scott, Joy Marie/Facebook/ Remembering Julie MottShow MoreShow Less
3. The services concluded on Aug. 15 around 1:30 p.m. Workers at the funeral home moved a casket holding Mott's body to a hallway where it awaited transfer for cremation.
4. When workers returned the next morning, the casket that had been holding Mott's body was empty. No signs of forced entry were found at the funeral home, and none of the facility's security equipment captured any suspicious activity.
5. Police said they believe the alleged theft occurred sometime between the end of Mott's funeral and the closing of the funeral home around 4:30 p.m.
Mark D. Wilson/ San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
6. A San Antonio Police Department report said a man in his 20s was the last to leave Mott's funeral. While the report did not identify the man by name, he was described as "obsessed" with Mott.
7. That man was later identified as Bill Wilburn, who reportedly called Mission Park staff over 200 times in one day. Police issued Wilburn a criminal trespass notice on Sept. 2, 2015, forbidding his entrance to Mission Park property. He was later arrested after breaking the conditions of the trespass notice.
Bexar County JailShow MoreShow Less
8. Robert "Dick" Tips, who owns the Mission Park Funeral Chapel along with his wife, Kristen Tips, said at the time of the body's disappearance that he believed the person responsible for the theft had was vehemently opposed to cremation.
Billy Calzada / San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
17of539. San Antonio Police said they have investigated several persons of interest in the case, but have still not been able to make an arrest.Mark D. Wilson/SAENShow MoreShow Less
10. In January 2016 the Mott family filed a civil lawsuit against Mission Park. Mott family attorneys say Tips and his wife Kristin, the president of MPII, Inc., the parent company of Mission Park, either didn't know or deliberately "sought to conceal" the fact that Mission Park subcontracted services from Beyer & Beitel for years.
LELAND A. OUTZ/SPECIAL TO THE EXPRESS-NEWSShow MoreShow Less
20of5312. On Aug. 14, 2017, Jesse Salame, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, said the investigation into the matter was still active. "We're following the leads as they come in," he said. "This case was handled in a way that a homicide would be investigated."John Davenport /San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
13. MPII Inc., which does business as Mission Park Funeral Chapels and Cemeteries, was found guilty in the loss of their Mott's body before she was to be cremated in 2015. Sharlotte and Timothy Mott were awarded $8 million after a three-week trial in February 2018.
Bob Owen /San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
23of53Julie Mott's Facebook Page is now a memorial to 25-year-old woman who died on August 8 from cystic fibrosis.Scott, Joy Marie/Facebook/ Remembering Julie MottShow MoreShow Less
29of53Investigators are searching for any clues in a stolen body from Mission Park Funeral Chapels.Mark D. Wilson/ San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
32of53Julie Mott, died on Aug. 8 at age 25. Her body was stolen from the Mission Park Funeral Chapels.Mark D. Wilson/San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
40of53Mission Park Funeral Chapel North facility, 3401 Cherry Ridge DriveGoogle MapsShow MoreShow Less
41of53Dick Tips, Mission Park Funeral Home Chairman and CEO, at the construction site of Mission Park Stone Oak Funeral Home, Friday, July, 7, 2006. Photo Bob OwenBOB OWEN/SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS-NEWSShow MoreShow Less
43of53Investigators are searching for any clues in a stolen body from Mission Park Funeral Chapels.Mark D. Wilson/San Antonio Express-NewsShow MoreShow Less
46of53Julie Mott died Aug. 8. Investi- gators believe her body was stolen between 1:30 and 4:30 p.m. Aug. 15./Show MoreShow Less
47of53Julie Mott, died on Aug. 8 at age 25. Her body was stolen from the Mission Park Funeral Chapels.Mark D. Wilson/SAENShow MoreShow Less
The family of a San Antonio woman whose body was reported stolen from a casket at Mission Park Funeral Chapels North in August has filed a lawsuit against the facility.
Filed last week in state district court in Bexar County, the suit accuses the funeral home of gross negligence and seeks more than $1 million in damages.
RELATED: Woman's body stolen from casket in San Antonio
Julie Mott, 25, died Aug. 8 from cystic fibrosis, the funeral home's owner and family friend Robert "Dick" Tips said at the time. After her memorial service on Aug. 15, the casket holding her body was moved into a hallway to await transfer for cremation, he said, but funeral home workers found the casket empty the next day.
San Antonio police investigators at the time said they believed the theft happened before staff closed the facility, between 1:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m.. Police, who looked into several leads, speculated at the time that it could have been done by someone who opposes cremation and prefers a traditional burial, but they were unable to identify any suspects.
RELATED: A month later, still no sign of Julie Mott's remains that were stolen
There have been no new developments in the case, which is being investigated as abuse of a corpse, a Class A misdemeanor, Sgt. Jesse Salame, a San Antonio police spokesman, said Wednesday.
The investigation remains open and anyone with information on the whereabouts of Mott's remains is urged to call investigators at 210-255-TIPS.
ezavala@express-news.net
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Elizabeth Zavala
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Elizabeth Zavala covers county and state courts on the Express-News Crime Team. Born and reared in San Antonio, she graduated from Fox Tech High School in 1981 and has been a newspaper journalist since she graduated from Texas Woman's University at Denton in 1985. She has worked at five daily newspapers in Texas, including The Dallas Morning News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram and the Denton Record-Chronicle.