Rockford man charged with stealing funeral home van with body of man inside arrested in Green Bay

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Rockford man charged in the theft of a funeral home van with a body inside earlier this year has been arrested in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Rockford police said Monday.

Brown County police took Deon Howard, 23, into custody Sunday morning after a traffic stop, Rockford police said.

Howard was charged with unlawful possession of a stolen vehicle and abuse of a corpse in January, Rockford officials said.

Curtis Brown, 47, of Rockford was pronounced dead earlier that month at a local hospital, the coroner's office said. He died from natural causes.

Brown's body was then released from the hospital to Collins & Stone funeral home staff, the coroner's office said.

A Collins & Stone funeral home van was later reported stolen from the Rockford facility with Brown's body inside.

SEE ALSO: Rockford man charged with stealing funeral home van with body of man inside; body ID'd

The van was found in Chicago in the 1400-block of East 87th Street, near the border of Avalon Park and Calumet Heights. Rockford police said the body that was inside, which officials said was in a bag and not a coffin, was still missing.

The body was later found behind a vacant home in the 8200-block of South Manistee Avenue in the South Chicago neighborhood. It was not immediately clear if the body was still in its bag.

The Winnebago County Coroner's Office took Brown's body back to Rockford, and his family has been notified of the incident.

Brandy Collins of Collins & Stone funeral home was already on probation for unprofessional conduct and failure to account for personal property prior to the incident.

It is not yet clear how the vehicle was stolen from the funeral home. The funeral home did not respond to requests for comment.

Sun-Times Media contributed to this report.

The video in the player above is from an earlier report.

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