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Parents agree
on handling of remains of Tim Lopez
The parents of Tim Lopez reached an agreement last week
on how and where their son’s remains will be buried.
Lopez’s parents, Barbara McQuiston and John
Lopez, agreed that McQuiston would gain custody of Tim Lopez’s remains
after they are released by the Greene County coroner’s office, which
is still analyzing the body.
The parents, who are divorced, agreed that Lopez
will be buried in Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, Calif., in Los Angeles
County. John Lopez will be notified when his son’s remains are released
by the coroner’s office and when he will be buried. McQuiston’s
attorney, Craig T. Matthews, who once operated a law practice in Yellow
Springs and now has an office in Centerville, said that McQuiston plans
to have a “simple graveside burial service” for Tim Lopez.
On Monday, Matthews said that he hoped the coroner
would release the body as soon as later this week.
The attorneys for McQuiston and John Lopez worked
out the agreement minutes before Judge Robert A. Hagler of the Greene County
Probate Court was set to start a hearing on March 18 on the disposition
of Tim Lopez’s remains. McQuiston had asked the court to appoint Matthews
the administrator of Tim Lopez’s estate, giving him the authority
to handle burial arrangements on behalf of McQuiston, who now lives in California.
Tim Lopez had been missing for two years until his
body was found in February buried in the backyard of the Allen Street home
of Michael Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse, 20, was a classmate of Lopez at Yellow
Springs High School.
Rittenhouse was arrested for allegedly murdering
Lopez and is being held without bond in the Greene County jail. The Greene
County prosecutor’s office has not yet asked a grand jury to indict
Rittenhouse.
Matthews said that McQuiston was happy with the
agreement, which, he noted, was “what we had asked for in the beginning.”
He also said that he believed that had Judge Hagler
considered the case in court, he would have granted custody of Lopez’s
remains to McQuiston. Matthews had said before the hearing that McQuiston
should be given custody of the body because she was closer to her son than
John Lopez was.
In a phone interview from California on Monday,
John Lopez called the agreement a compromise that “we were forced
into accepting.” Lopez said that with television cameras in the courtroom
last Thursday, he decided to strike a compromise with his ex-wife because
he thought the disagreement could get “ugly.”
“We decided we didn’t want that kind
of thing in front of cameras,” Lopez said.
Lopez said that he had wanted a say in how his son’s
remains would be disposed of, including where he would be buried, and that
there was a possibility that Tim Lopez’s remains might have been cremated.
Matthews said that McQuiston was “not interested
in talking” with John Lopez about the burial issue. “She did
not feel she should have to negotiate with him on what to do with her son’s
remains,” Matthews said.
McQuiston has declined several requests for interviews.
—Robert Mihalek |
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