Inset: Kevin Ahn (Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office).
A Pennsylvania man allegedly murdered his mother and then drove to his sister’s house with her body inside of the car — covering it with boxes, McDonald’s wrappers and “household goods” — in what his lawyer has likened to respectfully “dressing up a skeleton,” according to police and local reports.
Kevin Ahn, 31, is charged with first-degree murder and assault, as well as abuse of a corpse, in connection to the death of his mom, Hyun Ahn, 61, in Maryland earlier this year, according to local NBC affiliate WGAL. The woman’s death was ruled a homicide by strangulation and a traumatic brain injury.
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Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger told The Baltimore Sun on Saturday that Ahn is facing murder and assault charges in Baltimore County, where Hyun Ahn lived in Owings Mills, after allegedly killing the woman there sometime in March.
Northern Lancaster County officials say it was Ahn’s estranged sister in Penn Township who reported him to police after a “suspicious incident” at her residence in the 100 block of Fruitville Pike in Penn Township on March 24, according to a police press release.
The woman allegedly told police that Ahn, who is “transient and not generally welcome at the home,” per cops, showed up at her house driving their mother’s 2022 Toyota Rav 4 and was “acting weird.” The sister and her husband, who came outside to confront Ahn, both allegedly saw “an unresponsive person positioned across the rear seat and floor” of his vehicle, “partially covered in household goods” and trash, according to police.
Ahn was initially charged with abuse of a corpse in Lancaster County. He appeared at a preliminary hearing last month, where officers testified that his mom had been dead for at least 30 to 40 hours inside of her vehicle before she was discovered by Ahn’s sister and husband, according to the Daily Voice.
Ahn’s attorney argued that he was allegedly mourning his mother in his own way — as if he was “dressing up a skeleton” — not abusing her corpse, the Voice reports.
“Covered the body out of respect,” the lawyer reportedly said.
