Parents challenge after-death custody law

WASHOUGAL, Wash. – The parents of a murdered Clark County woman will go to the state Capitol on Tuesday to testify for a new law they say will help murder victims’ relatives.

Steve and Kerry Crane’s daughter, Erin, was murdered by her estranged husband, Larry Van Schaick in 2007.

He pleaded guilty last year to the crime and is serving a 14-year sentence.

But because of a Washington marital law, Van Schaick still had control over what happened to Erin’s body. The Cranes’ say that’s wrong, and a person charged with murdering a spouse should not have control over what happens to the remains of the deceased.

“It was absolutely shocking; it was nauseating; it was unbelievable,” said Kerry when she and her husband found out that the person convicted of murdering their daughter could decide what to do with her body.

“For example, if we wanted her buried, he could have had her cremated,” said Steve. “Or the opposite and he could have held it up for days.”

Now the couple will work to undo the current law and replace it with a law they’ve nicknamed “Erin’s Law.” The new law, Senate Bill 6277, will ban anyone charged with first or second degree murder or manslaughter from having any say in what happens to a victim’s remains even if they are married to the victim.

On Tuesday the Cranes will testify at the Capitol in Olympia in support of the bill which is sponsored by State Senator Joe Zarelli, a Republican from Ridgefield, Wash.

“I was extremely surprised,” said Zarelli about the current law. “It didn’t make a lot of sense to me, like there must be something wrong with that reading of statute, but sure enough there was no clarification around the issue.”

Steve Crane said he hopes the bill, if passed into law, will help the parents of the next spouse whose death is tied to domestic violence.

“We just don’t want to see those people suffer through what we had to go through,” he said.

Ultimately, the Cranes were able to decide what to do with their daughter’s body. Van Schaick signed a release allowing them custody of it.

Washington’s bill is patterned after a law passed by the 2007 Oregon Legislature.